Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked about

    a contest he was asked to judge.  The purpose of the

    contest was to find the most caring child.  The winner

    was a four year old child whose next door neighbor

    was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife.

    Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old

    gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.

    When his mother asked him what he had said to the

    neighbor, the little boy said, "Nothing, I just helped

    him cry."

    What It Means to Be Adopted

    Teacher Debbie Moon's first graders were discussing

    a picture of a family.  One little boy in the picture had a

    different color hair than the other family members.  One

    child suggested that he was adopted and a little girl

    said, "I know all about adoptions because I was adopted."

    "What does it mean to be adopted?" asked another child.

    "It means," said the girl, "that you grew in your mommy's

    heart instead of her tummy."
 

    Barney

    A four year old was at the pediatrician for a check up.

    as the doctor looked down her ears with an otoscope,

    he asked, "Do you think I'll find Big Bird in here?"  The

    little girl stayed silent.  Next, the doctor took a tongue

    depressor and looked down her throat.  He asked, "Do

    you think I'll find the Cookie Monster down there?"

    Again, the little girl was silent.  Then the doctor put a

    stethoscope to her chest.  As he listened to her heart

    "Oh, no!" the little girl replied.  "Jesus is in my heart.

    Barney's on my underpants."

 

    Discouraged?

    As I was driving home from work one day, I stopped to

    watch a local Little League baseball game that was

    being played in a park near my home.

    As I sat down behind the bench on the first-base line, I

    asked one of the boys what the score was.  "We're

    behind 14 to nothing," he answered with a smile.

    "Really," I said. "I have to say you don't look very

    discouraged."  "Discouraged?" the boy asked with

    a puzzled look on his face.  "Why should we be

    discouraged?  We haven't been up to bat yet."

    Roles And How We Play Them

    Whenever I'm disappointed with my spot in my life,

    I stop and think about little Jamie Scott.  Jamie was

    trying out for a part in a school play.  His mother told

    me that he'd set his heart on being in it, though she

    feared he would not be chosen.  On the day the parts

    were awarded, I went with her to collect him after

    school.  Jamie rushed up to her, eyes shining with

    pride and excitement.  "Guess what Mom," he shouted,

   and then said those words that will remain a lesson to me:

    "I've been chosen to clap and cheer."

 
 
 

    A Lesson In Heart

    A lesson in "heart" is my little, 10 year old daughter,

    Sarah, who was born with a muscle missing in her foot

    and wears a brace all the time. She came home one

    beautiful spring day to tell me she had competed in

    "field day" - that's where they have lots of races and

    other competitive events.  Because of her leg support,

    my mind raced as I tried to think of encouragement for

    my Sarah, things I could say to her about not letting this

    get her down - but before I could get a word out, she

    said "Daddy, I won two of the races!"  I couldn't believe

    it!  And then Sarah said, "I had an advantage."  Ah. I

    knew it.  I thought she must have been given a head

    start...some kind of physical advantage.  But again,

    before I could say anything, she said, "Daddy, I didn't

    get a head start... My advantage was I had to try harder!"

    An Eye Witness Account from New York City, on a cold day in

    December...

    (Wishfully, this is the kind of thing that would happen

    frequently, everywhere...)
 
 

    A little boy about 10 years old was standing before a

    shoe store on the roadway, barefooted, peering through

    the window, and shivering with cold.  A lady approached

    the boy and said, "My little fellow, why are you looking so

    earnestly in that window?"  "I was asking God to give me

    a pair of shoes," was the boys reply.  The lady took him

    by the hand and went into the store and asked the clerk

    to get half a dozen pairs of socks for the boy.  She then

    asked if he could give her a basin of water and a towel.

    He quickly brought them to her.  She took the little fellow

    to the back part of the store and, removing her gloves,

    knelt down, washed his little feet, and dried them with a

   towel.  By this time the clerk had returned with the socks.

    Placing a pair upon the boy's feet, she purchased him a

    pair of shoes.  She tied up the remaining pairs of socks

    and gave them to him.  She patted him on the head and

    said, "No doubt, my little fellow, you feel more comfortable

    now ?"

    As she turned to go, the astonished lad caught her by the

    hand, and looking up in her face, with tears his eyes,

    answered the question with these words:

       "Are you God's Wife?"

 

    To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent

    people and the affection of children; to earn the

    appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of

    false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in

    others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy

    child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to

    know even one life has breathed easier because you have

    lived.  This is to have succeeded.

     -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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