Encouraging to Greatness

Some people have been telling me to help with my breathing i should be playing my trumpet more to expand my lungs and it brought back thoughts of when I was in 6th grade.

When I was in 6th grade I played the trumpet in band and I was not very good. I was like 10th out of 12. The band director was a rather mean man or so many people thought and he threw things at children not paying attention or messing up. Well half way into the year he had a heart attack. I went to the hospital to see him and took him a cactus because he could see it and it didn't need much care. I started to go see him on a regular basis and after the hospital at home. We built a relationship with each other.

Well at the same time we had a sub come in and teach band. He was not very nice to me and one day he had all the trumpets play one at a time and when he came to me. I tried to play but I didn't do very well. He told me I should think about quitting and that my lips were too big to play the trumpet. It was not only embarrassing but it hurt. ( He should have talked to Louis Armstrong)

Ephesian 4:29 is one of my favorite verses in the bible. It talks about instead of tearing people down we need to lift them up. Mr. Utley my regular band teacher did that.

My regular band teacher came back for the next year and when I started the 7th grade someone messed up my schedule and I wasn't in band or the sub did it I will never know. lol I went to the Band teacher Mr. Utley and he said come down during study hall and he would work with me privately. He not only worked with me on playing the trumpet but he taught me to play the baritone. He told me I had a gift and I could do great and that I should try playing the baritone in band. He taught me how to play the bass clef as well as treble clef. By the second half of the year I was back in band and became the first chair in the baritones out of 4.

There are many more stories of how people lifted me up and encouraged me. Since the 6th grade and going from being told to quit and having big lips to a man taking me aside and pouring his music into me. Leads me to now.

I have played professionally and now play all the brass instruments. I currently own 2 trumpets, a cornet, a trombone, a baritone, and Stephanie's french horn. I have come to love playing my instruments.

So if you have a chance and see an opportunity to encourage and lift someone up, Just Do it. You never know what someone else might have said to bring them down.

Just a thought.