Words that change lives

We all remember hearing the right words at the right time - kind praise from a teacher, an inspirational speech that spurred us into action. Usually the person speaking those words will not know the impact they are having.

Could your words make all the difference to someone else?

Here is a short but inspirational story that proves we may never know the ripple effect of our words or actions.

"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.

Several years later, one of the students, who joined the army, was killed in action. His teacher attended the funeral.
The church was packed and one by one those who loved him took a last walk by the coffin. As the teacher stood by the coffin one of the soldiers who acted as a 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, many of Mark's former classmates met up for lunch. Mark's mother and father were there. '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 recognise 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.'

Paul’s wife said, 'Paul asked me to put his in our wedding album.' 'I have mine too,' Mary said. 'It's in my diary'
Then Sarah, 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,' Sarah 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.
Tell others what you admire about them, why they are special or important to you. Maybe they need to hear it or maybe they don’t, but it could just change everything.

 

 

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