Too Busy for a Friend

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 aserviceman 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'smother 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.'

Cuck'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 peopleyou love and care
for, that they are special and important.

Tell them, before it is too late.

One Way To Accomplish This Is: Forward 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'r e '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.

MayYour Day Be Blessed As Special As You Are



* Contributed by my dear friend Cindy, the head Pooh-Bah at
Teaching Hands. Thanks Cindy for all the support and Humor.