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 Vietnam and his teacher attended the
funeral of that special student. She had never seen a
serviceman in a coffin in a military uniform 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 class mates 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.
The real question is where will you spend eternity, heaven or hell ? ? ?
So please, tell the people you love and care for, that they
are special and important. Tell them, before it is too
late ... good people don't go to heaven, SAVED people
go to heaven. There are many a good
person that went to hell because they never accepted Jesus Christ as
their personal Savior. How about you my friend, are
you bound for glory land ? ? ?
Remember, we reap what we sow, what we put into the
lives of others comes back into our own.
Author Unknown
Someone To Care
Jimmy Davis
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