The Power of Words

Sharon Jaynes has written a great book entitled The Power Of A Woman's Words.  In it she shares 'Marie's' story,  that reminds us of the impact we make each day by seemingly unimportant  words.  I share it here.

"He was in the first  third-grade class I taught at Saint Mary's School in Morris, Minnesota. All thirty-four of my students were dear to me, but Mark Eklund was one in a million.  Very neat in appearance, he had that happy-to-be-alive attitude that made even his occasional mischievousness delightful."

She goes on to tell of some of the antics she had to deal with as Mark talked incessantly through the year At the end of the year she was asked to teach junior high math. The years flew by and before she knew it, Mark was in her classroom again. Her story continues:

"One Friday, things just didn't feel right.  We had worked hard on a new concept all week, and I sensed that the students were growing frustrated with themselves and edgy with one another.  I had to stop this crankiness before it got out of hand.  So I asked them to list the name of the other students in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name.  Then I told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of their classmates and write it down." (Nice assignment when compared with math!)

"It took the remainder of the class period to finish the assignment, and as the students left the room, each one handed

me the papers. Mark said, "Thank you for teaching me, Sister. Have a good weekend."

That Saturday, I wrote down the name of each student on a separate sheet of paper, and I listed what everyone else had said about that individual.  On Monday I gave each student his or her list.  Before long, the entire class was smiling."Really?"  I heard whispered. "I never knew that meant anything to anyone!" "I didn't know others liked me so much!"

"No one ever mentioned those papers in class again.  I 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 with one another again."

Marie goes on to tell her story of the years passing and of how she found out about Mark after returning from vacation. He had been killed in Vietnam.  His parents had asked if she could be at the funeral as she had meant so much to him.  The story continues.

"After the funeral, most of Mark's former classmates headed to Chuck's farmhouse for lunch.  Mark's mother and father were there, obviously waiting for me.  "We want to show you something," his father said, taking a wallet out of his pocket. "The found this on Mark when he was killed.  We though 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. I knew without looking that the papers were the ones on which I 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."

"Mark's classmates started to gather around us.  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, reacher into her pocketbook, took our her wallet, and showed her worn and frazzled list to the group."I carry this with me at all times,"  Vicki said without batting an eyelash. "I think we all saved our list."

Our words, dear reader, spoken or writen, will echo in the hearts and minds of our children, our husband, our friends to the end of the age. So who needs a life changing word in your world?   You can rest assured there is one person after another in your life that needs to know they matter in a world that is only too willing to say they don't.

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"Words-so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary,
how potent for good and evil they become,
in the hands of one who know how to combine them!"
Nathaniel Hawthorne