Yesterday morning as I was unlocking my office door, a friend and fellow graduate student down the hall was opening his door. He's been about a year behind me, so I know he's going through the worst part of his program right now. Last summer brought my qualifying exams followed by the approval of my dissertation proposal. If this part goes awry, you're off track and you might as well quit and go back to teaching school as an ABD (all but dissertation). More than half of those who start doctoral studies wind up in this category.
So I felt like I needed to ask him how his program was progressing, and it turned out to be a good thing. He told me about how nervous he was for his written exams. I found out later that his exams had been much more demanding than mine were because of how they were organized - four hours in a room with pen and paper and whatever is stored in your beady brain. Take that times four and you've got yourself a pretty emotionally challenging qualifying exam. His oral exams are today, and I had the chance to encourage him and pray for him.
He mentioned that he had not gotten the sense of internal peace that came just before his written exams. But isn't that why we only get what we need for today? Won't tomorrow worry about itself? Manna doesn't keep in the fridge so well. Pennies from heaven rust away if you keep them for too long.
Had I waited and postponed my talk with him, it would have been too late. He's got a lot of people in his corner rooting for him, and yesterday morning (and today, too) he needed one more. A word in good season is indeed like apples of silver in settings of gold - and sometimes the season for those words only lasts a moment. Don't save your encouraging words just for yourself, spread them in good season because you never know when someone is most in need of a shot in the arm that only you can give.
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