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
or 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 Viet Nam 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 pocketbook, took out her wallet and showed her
worn and 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.

 And One Way To Accomplish This Is:
Forward this message on. If you do not send it, you will have, once
again passed up the wonderful opportunity to do something nice and
beautiful.

 If you've received this, it is
because someone cares for you and it means there is probably at
least someone for whom you care.

 If you're "too busy" to take those
few minutes right now to forward this message on, would this be the
VERY first time you didn't do that little thing that would make a
difference in your relationships?

 The more people that you send
this to, the better you'll be at reaching out to those you care
about.

 Remember, you reap what you sow.
What you put into the lives of others comes back into your own.

 May Your Day Be Blessed As Special
As You Are