Encouragement

---

Overcoming Challenges
© 2006

by

Stephen A. Peterson


In November, 1965, Sister Rita Clare, our English Literature and Composition teach at Scecina Memorial High School, handed out yellow colored stationery to the class.

“Seniors, I want you to think carefully and prayerfully then write an ‘I will’ sentence,” she explained. “Think of some goal you believe God is calling you to accomplish in life once you graduate from Scecina. Your other alternative is to think of something He desires for you to overcome before you graduate.”

While many of the students began writing, I stared at the paper for a long time. All sorts of questions surfaced in my mind. “What am I going to do once I leave Scecina? Where am I weak? What is it that God would have me to overcome or accomplish before I leave Scecina to prepare myself for the REAL world? I wonder what the REAL world is like. Finally, one thing became very clear to me—it was an objective I knew in my mind God wanted me to attain and overcome before I graduated. So I thoughtfully wrote it down, not in a sentence, but in a two paragraph statement, folded it, pasted it together and printed my name on it and gave it to Sister Rita Clare.

Having kept a copy of my objective, I worked hard at my perceived and stated objective—up Christmas. After Christmas, the freshness and fervor faded. By March, 1966, it was forgotten. Then on April 8, 1966 exactly sixty-one days before graduation there in the mailbox at home was a white envelope. Inside of it was the yellow paper with my “I will” paragraphs. ”Wow, what a prudent and wise teacher is Sister Rita Clare is!” I thought to myself. She never opened the pasted letter but had saved them for the time or period when she felt our commitment would probably need its second wind. With Sister Rita Clare’s extra push, I came to understand to be persistent and steadfast even during less challenging periods and time of failure of one’s goals and objectives in our future quests in life. I learned also that it is important we have friends who will honestly and without malice sustain us when we miss our objectives.

If—like me—you need extra portions of encouragement, why not place your daily life challenges and spiritual confrontations in a time capsule and hand it to a teacher, counselor or trusted friend with a note that has written on its front and back that says, “Please send this to me in my period of weakness, uncertainty or challenge.

---

PLEASE ENCOURAGE AUTHOR BELOW LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE