Too Busy For A
Friend
One day a teacher asked her students to list the names of the other
students in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between
each name.
Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about
each of their classmates and write it down.
It took the remainder of the class period to finish their assignment,
and as the students left the room, each one handed in the papers.
That Saturday, the teacher wrote down the name of each student on a
separate sheet of paper, and listed what everyone else had said about
that individual.
On Monday she gave each student his or her list. Before long, the
entire class was smiling. "Really?" she heard whispered.
"I never knew that I meant anything to anyone!" and,"I didn't
know others liked me so much." were most of the comments.
No one ever mentioned those papers in class again. She never knew if
they discussed them after class or with their parents, but it didn't
matter. The exercise had accomplished its purpose. The students were
happy with themselves and one another. That group of students moved
on.
Several years later, one of the students was killed in Viet Nam and
his teacher attended the funeral of that special student. She had
never seen a serviceman in a military coffin before. He looked so
handsome, so mature.
The church was packed with his friends. One by one those who loved
him took a last walk by the coffin. The teacher was the last one to
bless the coffin.
As she stood there, one of the soldiers who acted as pallbearer
came up to her. "Were you Mark's math teacher?" he asked.
She nodded: "yes. "Then he said: "Mark talked about
you a lot."
After the funeral, most of Mark's former classmates went together
to a luncheon. Mark's mother and father were there, obviously
waiting to speak with his teacher.
"We want to show you something," his father said, taking
a wallet out of his pocket. "They found this on Mark when he
was killed. We thought you might recognize it."
Opening the billfold, he carefully removed two worn pieces of
notebook paper that had obviously been taped, folded and refolded
many times.
The teacher knew without looking that the papers were the ones on
which she had listed all the good things each of Mark's classmates
had said about him.
"Thank you so much for doing that," Mark's mother said.
"As you can see, Mark treasured it."
All of Mark's former classmates started to gather around. Charlie
smiled rather sheepishly and said, "I still have my list.
It's in the top drawer of my desk at home."
Chuck's wife said, "Chuck asked me to put his in our wedding
album."
"I have mine too," Marilyn said. "It's in my diary."
Then Vicki, another classmate, reached into her pocketbook, took
out her wallet and showed her worn and frazzled list to the group "
I carry this with me at all times," Vicki said and without
batting an eyelash, she continued: "I think we all saved our
lists."
That's when the teacher finally sat down and cried. She cried for
Mark and for all his friends who would never see him again.
The density of people in society is so thick that we forget that
life will end one day. And we don't know when that one day will
be.
So please, tell the people you love and care for, that they are
special and important. Tell them, before it is too late.
And One Way To Accomplish This Is: Send this message on. If you
do not send it, you will have, once again passed up the wonderful
opportunity to do something nice and beautiful.
If you've received this, it is because someone cares for you and
it means there is probably at least someone for whom you care.
If you're "too busy" to take those few minutes right
now to forward this message on, would this be the VERY first time
you didn't do that little thing that would make a difference in
your relationships?
The more people that you send this to, the better you'll be at
reaching out to those you care about!
Remember, you reap what you sow. What you put into the lives of
others comes back into your own.
May Your Day Be As Blessed As You Are Special! |
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