HAD IT NOT been for a confident and encouraging wife, Sofia, we might not have listed among the great names of literature the name of Nathaniel Hawthorne…

When Nathaniel, a heartbroken man, went home to tell his wife he was a failure and had been fired from his job in a customhouse, she surprised him with an exclamation of joy.

“Now,” she said triumphantly, “you can write your book!”  “Yes,” replied the man, with sagging confidence, “and what shall we live on while I am writing it.”  To his amazement, she opened a drawer and pulled out a substantial sum of money.  “Where on earth did you get that?” he exclaimed.  “I have always known you were a man of genius,” she told him.  “I knew that someday you would write a masterpiece.  So every week, out of the money you gave me for housekeeping, I saved a little bit.  So here is enough to last us for one whole year.”

From her trust and confidence came one of the greatest novels of American literature, The Scarlet Letter.

THOUGHT: When most people who’ve achieved great things tell their stories, they mention those who encouraged him along the way.  (David Jeremiah)

“Then news of these things came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent out Barnabas to go as far as Antioch. When he came and had seen the grace of God, he was glad, and encouraged them all that with purpose of heart they should continue with the Lord. For he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord.”  Acts 11:22-24

Mike Benson