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We are all teachers, and we are teaching all the time. Jesus said you shall be my witnesses (Acts 1.8). When I attended New York Institute of Technology, I had a creative writing teacher who encouraged me greatly. I turned in a bad essay ¡V it was full of big words to impress my teacher. It was poorly conceived, badly composed, and grammatically a stench in the nostrils of all my English teachers combined. She handed it back to me without a grade. What she did say was, How about choosing a subject about which you know something? Write it plain, so I¡¦ll understand it.

My teacher wasn¡¦t interested in my vast vocabulary ¡V she wanted to help me grow as a writer. So I went back to the drawing board. I turned in a story about our church youth camping trip. It was ok ¡V even a bit sappy. But her words, written in red on that paper are forever an encouragement:

Russell ¡V this is more like it!

This is good ¡V you should really do something with your writing ¡V submit it to a publisher.

I don¡¦t know how I ever got the courage to submit anything to a publisher ¡V but the mere fact that I ever did is attributable to a teacher whose name I can¡¦t even remember. Her words taught me to try.

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