Too
Busy for a friend



One
day a teacher asked her students to list the names of the

other students in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space

between each name.



Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of
their classmates and write it down.



It took the remainder of the class period to finish their assignment, and as the
students left the room, each one handed in the papers.



That Saturday, the teacher wrote down the name of each student

on a separate sheet of paper, and listed what everyone else had

said about that individual.



On Monday she gave each student his or her list.



Before long, the entire class was smiling.



"Really?"
she heard whispered. "I never knew that I meant anything to anyone!"
and, "I didn't know others liked me so much." were most of the
comments.



No
one ever mentioned those papers in class again.

She never knew if they discussed them after class with their parents, but it
didn't matter. The exercise had accomplished its purpose.



The students were happy with themselves and one another. That group of students
moved on. Several years later, one of the students was killed in
Vietnam


and his teacher attended the funeral of that special student.



She had never seen a serviceman in a military coffin before. He looked so
handsome, so mature. The church was packed with his friends.



One by one those who loved him took a last walk by the coffin.



The teacher was the last one to bless the coffin.





As she stood there, one of the soldiers who acted as pallbearer came up to her.





"Were
you Mark's math teacher?" he asked. She nodded: "yes."

Then he said: "Mark talked about you a lot."





After
the funeral, most of Mark's former classmates went together to a luncheon.
Mark's mother and father were there, obviously waiting to speak with his
teacher.





"We
want to show you something," his father said, taking a wallet out of his
pocket. "They found this on Mark when he was killed. We thought 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.



The teacher knew without looking that the
papers were the ones on which she 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."





All of Mark's former classmates started to
gather around. 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, reached into
her purse and showed her frazzled list to the group. "I carry this with me
at all times, " Vicki said and without batting an eyelash, she continued:
"I think we all saved our lists."



That's when the teacher finally sat down and
cried. She cried for Mark and for all his friends who would never see him again.





The density
of people in society is so thick that we forget that life will end one day. And
we don't know when that one day will be.



So please, tell
the people you love and care for, that they are

special and important.





Tell
them, before it is too late...