A compliment sandwich

I told my son about a problem I was having with his younger brother, and he said, "Why don't you give him a compliment sandwich." My most laconic offspring then left me alone to grapple inductively with the concept, and here is what I came up with:

The "compliment sandwich" is what the Apostle Paul served up when he also was having trouble with the brothers. On either side of the ham of rebuke or salami of exhortation, he would present the bread of encouragement, the better to make the meal more palatable. Here was Paul's style:

Consider his first letter to the Corinthian church:

Everybody needs to be told when he's doing something right --- even if it's just a little something, and if on balance it's pretty messed up.