Love And Recognition
A teacher in New York decided to honor each of her seniors in high
school by telling them the difference they each made. Using a process
developed by Helice Bridges of Del Mar, California, she called each
student to the front of the class, one at a time. First she told them how the
student made a difference to her and the class. Then she presented each
of them with a blue ribbon imprinted with gold letters which read, "Who
I Am Makes a Difference."
Afterwards the teacher decided to do a class project to see what kind
of impact recognition would have on a community. She gave each of the
students three more ribbons and instructed them to go out and spread this
acknowledgment ceremony. Then they were to follow up on the results,
see who honored whom and report back to the class in about a week.
One of the boys in the class went to a junior executive in a nearby
company and honored him for helping him with his career planning. He
gave him a blue ribbon and put it on his shirt. Then he gave him two extra
ribbons, and said, "We're doing a class project on recognition, and we'd
like you to go out, find somebody to honor, give them a blue ribbon, then
give them the extra blue ribbon so they can acknowledge a third person to
keep this acknowledgment ceremony going. Then please report back to
me and tell me what happened."
Later that day the junior executive went in to see his boss, who had
been noted, by the way, as being kind of a grouchy fellow. He sat his
boss down and he told him that he deeply admired him for being a
creative genius. The boss seemed very surprised. The junior executive
asked him if he would accept the gift of the blue ribbon and would he
give him permission to put it on him. His surprised boss said, "Well,
sure." The junior executive took the blue ribbon and placed it right on his
boss's jacket above his heart. As he gave him the last extra ribbon, he
said, "Would you do me a favor? Would you take this extra ribbon and
pass it on by honoring somebody else? The young boy who first gave me
the ribbons is doing a project in school and we want to keep this
recognition ceremony going and find out how it affects people."
That night the boss came home to his 14-year-old son and sat him
down. He said, "The most incredible thing happened to me today. I was
in my office and one of the junior executives came in and told me he
admired me and gave me a blue ribbon for being a creative genius.
Imagine. He thinks I'm a creative genius. Then he put this blue ribbon that
says 'Who I Am Makes A Difference' on my jacket above my heart. He
gave me an extra ribbon and asked me to find somebody else to honor.
As I was driving home tonight, I started thinking about whom I would
honor with this ribbon and I thought about you. I want to honor you. "My
days are really hectic and when I come home I don't pay a lot of attention
to you. Sometimes I scream at you for not getting good enough grades in
school and for your bedroom being a mess, but somehow tonight, I just
wanted to sit here and, well, just let you know that you do make a
difference to me. Besides your mother, you are the most important
person in my life. You're a great kid and I love you!"
The startled boy started to sob and sob, and he couldn't stop crying.
His whole body shook. He looked up at his father and said through his
tears, "I was planning on committing suicide tomorrow, Dad, because I
didn't think you loved me. Now I don't need to."
Addendum -- John 13:34 (NLT)
"So now I am giving you a
new commandment: Love
each other. Just as I have
loved you, you should love
each other."
[ Helice Bridges -- Source Unknown. ]
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