Sunday Strip: Muppet Me This...

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Happy Sunday! I do like the early edition.,, Thanks!!

We should all do our best to invest in others, looking for ways to bring out the best in them. None of us can reach our highest potential by ourselves, we need each other. You could be the one that tips the scales in someone else’s life.

My wife came home from work the other day tired and beat up from a long day in the OR. She told me towards the end of the day she went in to relieve a nurse extra early and the nurse acknowledged it by saying “no one does this, are you sure”. This is a nurse that hasn’t always been nice to my wife. My wife said “yes you’ve worked really hard today, go relax for a bit”. There was almost an hour left in the day, there were no new cases starting, so after a long day this nurse got a nice break while my wife would have to work right to the end of her shift.

I can’t tell you how hard my wife works, beside a surgeon for hours on end, operating on children. How many times she comes home and tells me she worked with someone she trained years ago when they first started out as a new nurse or resident. And that she was patient with them, set them up to succeed by knowing what the surgeon would need ahead of time and letting the new hire hand them the correct instruments. It makes for a very positive initial experience, one that she rarely got.

I decided to do something I’ve never done, it hasn’t had a conclusion yet, so I’ll have to fill you in later on how it goes. Anyways I wrote a note complimenting my wife, acknowledging some of the wonderful things she does for me, our family and the people she works with. I complimented her on her talent for teaching people, her patience, her helping not hindering people and how she always goes to work early, sets up the rooms before her co workers get there, makes life better for the people around her especially me. How over all these years, week after week she shows up, she provides our health benefits, it’s her consistency and work ethic, she’s perfectly dependable. I slipped the note into her pocket book and zipped it closed.

You know the incredible thing, there are people around us that have never been told all the good things they do. All of their talents that go basically unnoticed because people don’t tell them. All it would take is a simple compliment, a simple note to someone, it could make such a difference in someone’s life. It costs us nothing but to be thoughtful and a minute or two of your time. We all need someone that believes in us more than we may believe in ourselves. I’m not preaching, I’ve been with my wife for over 34 years and leaving a note complimenting her is a first, we’ll see how it goes when she finally finds it!

There was a young lady who as teenager was almost 6 feet tall but weighed less than 100 lbs., she was anorexic. Everyday she wouldn’t eat but a couple hundred calories. She was so depressed and so disillusioned with life she had basically cut herself off from her friends and her family. She figured one day she would probably starve to death and that was fine with her, she didn’t feel any sense of purpose.

One day a friend from school called her and asked if she would help her with her math homework, the young lady agreed. Her friend came over to her house looking for help. Well the girl with anorexia explained the math in such a way that made her friend understand in a very simple patient manner. When her friend was leaving just in passing she said “man you are so smart, you would make a great math teacher one day”. All of a sudden a light turned on in that young lady. She began to feel a sense of purpose. She realized that she had a talent, there was something she was good at, that one small compliment changed her perspective.

That was over 20 years ago, today that young lady is an award winning math teacher. She works with underachieving children. Not only that but she is happily married and has 3 children of her own. She credits it all to that one statement that one friend had made years ago recognizing her gift and took the time to plant that small seed of hope. Just a simple affirmation.

What a difference it makes when we bless people with our words. When we look for their gifts, we look for their talents and we speak faith into them. One of our goals should be not to get people to think more highly of ourselves, but to get people to think more highly of themselves. It doesn’t have to be something big, just a kind word, a simple compliment. Maybe drop somebody a note in the mail telling them what you like about them, how much you appreciate them. Find a way to invest in others, you never know what a difference it can make. J.Goodrich

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