Too Busy!

[dee....@suddenlink.net]

Subject: Re: Too Busy to be a Friend?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I know most of you may have seen this before, but I received it today
from one of our classmates, so thought it might benefit all of us to read it
again. Sorta wish one of our teachers, wonderful tho most of them were, would
have thought of this. What a silent gift to share............

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
Iraq 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: 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'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.






--


Always remember... God loves YOU!
Delores (Dee)