Encouragement needed!

In college I had taken several Theology classes and one of these Theology classes was taught by a man whom my father had known. I struggled in this class, not with understanding the material, as I did fairly well on all of my papers but when it came to the tests I would draw a blank.  What you need to know is that in this class the professor had created class notes for us that had outlines for us to fill out and take notes.  

I told my father with my struggle in taking this professor’s tests and he encouraged me to talk to the professor.  I took my father’s advice and told the professor of my struggle taking the tests in his class.  He informed me that I needed to do well on the final in order to pass the class.  He told me he knew I knew the material from my written papers.  

The day of the final came and the test was mainly made up of questions that needed lists from the professor’s notes.  I sat there most of the time as my mind went blank.  I watched as every other student completed the final and left the classroom.  The professor came up to me and asked if I was done and then he proceeded to see that I hadn’t answered hardly any question.  He asked me to go down to his office on the floor below and wait for him there.  

As the professor came into his office, he asked me if I had studied for the final, to which I answered yes. I told him I could see the page number of his notes that the answer to the first question was on but the list was blank in my mind.  This intrigued him, so he put me on the spot and asked me for the paper number, to which I responded with the correct page number.  He said if I give you one thing from the list do you think you can get the rest? It was worth a try, right?  He started to give the first item on the list to answer the first question and everything came clear to me and I was able to answer the rest of that question easily.  This dear professor worked with me through the rest of the final until I was able to complete it.

I left his office not sure where I stood when it came to passing this class and I headed to the cafeteria for supper and as I was just getting through the line there was a tap on my shoulder and it was this professor coming to let me know that I ended up with a B+ on the final and had passed the class.  The next thing he said was how proud he was of me for sticking to it. 

It was the encouragement, first from my father to talk to the professor and then the encouragement from the professor that made all the difference.

Insight for today: Encourage those around me!  It might make all the difference today!