Well, as you might know, not one of us has or will reach ultimate perfection in our life upon Planet Earth! At least that's what the Apostle Paul said near the end of his life! He said, "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ took hold of me!" (Philippians 3:12). How do you think others see your life? Have you heard affirmations, or are you just hearing negative words about your shortcomings?
Sister Helen Mrosla of Morris, Minnesota tells about a class of ninth grade students that seemed to be growing frustrated with themselves---and edgy with each other one Friday afternoon. So she had each student write a list of the names of the students in the class, leaving a space between each name. Then she told them to think of the nicest thing that they could say about each of their classmates and write it down. That Saturday, she wrote down the name of each student on a separate piece of paper, and she 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 meant anything to anyone!" "I didn't know others liked me so much!"
Years later Sister Helen Mrosla was returning home, and her parents picked her up at the airport. Her father said to her, "The Eklunds called last night." "Really?" Helen said, "I haven't heard from them in years, I wonder how Mark is." Helen's father responded quietly, "Mark was killed in Vietnam, and the funeral is tomorrow, and his parents would like it if you could attend."
Sister Helen Mrosla did attend and she was the last one to bless the coffin. As she stood there, one of the soldiers who had acted as pallbearer came up to her, and asked, "Were you Mark's math teacher?" She nodded as she continued to stare at the coffin. The soldier said to her, "Mark talked about you a lot." Mark's parents came to her later, and said, "We want to show you something." Mark's father spoke as he took a well worn paper out of his wallet, "They found this on Mark when he was killed. We thought you might recognize it." The father carefully unfolded two worn pieces of notebook paper that had obviously been taped, folded and refolded many times. Helen 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."
Would you like your words to be treasured long, long after being spoken? Why not determine to speak affirmative words, and encourage others to follow your example in doing the same among family and friends!
