The Power Of A Compliment

THE POWER OF A COMPLIMENT

Helen Mrosla writes:

"In an earlier grade, I’d taped Mark’s mouth shut for talking too much in class. Now he was a student in my junior high school math class.

"His class had worked hard all week. By Friday the students were getting cranky. So, for a break, I asked them to write the nicest thing they could about every student and hand it in. She compiled the results for each student and gave out the lists.

"Several years later, Mark was killed in Vietnam. After the funeral, most of his former classmates gathered with Mark’s parents and me for lunch. Mark’s father took a wallet out of his pocket. 'They found this on Mark when he was killed,' he said. He carefully removed a folded, refolded, and taped paper--the one on which she listed the good things Mark’s classmates had said about him.

"Another student, Charlie, smiled sheepishly and said, 'I keep my list in my desk drawer.' Chuck’s wife said, 'Chuck put his in our wedding album.' 'I have mine, too,' Marilyn said, 'in my diary.' Vicky reached into her pocketbook and brought out her frazzled list."

May you too learn how to sustain others through being sustained by God’s Word.