We Still Need Someone to Believe in Us
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: On Oprah Winfrey’s last show of her popular daytime television series, she said this.
"I've talked to nearly 30,000 people on this show,
and all 30,000 had one thing in common --
they all wanted validation. ... They wanted to know;
Do you hear me? Do you see me?
Does what I say mean anything to you?"
In this world, it is an easy thing for some individuals to become lost in the crowd of the other voices. There are shy people and individuals with a low sense of self-worth, and some that just plain ‘ole feel they are ‘nobody’.
Some people are just too tired to speak up for themselves, or perhaps, have had some awful life experiences, and they reconcile within themselves that they are just not worth the fight to be acknowledged. And perhaps, they have committed what they consider the unspeakable act, or sin, or transgression. They feel they just don’t matter anymore.
What a terrible conclusion to reach – that you just don’t matter anymore.
My passion, my mission in life is to be an encourager. I want to be one who validates people. I attempt this through writing and podcasting, and in one-on-one interpersonal interactions. Am I successful? In some small measure, perhaps. Occasionally I will get a note or a phone call that lets me know someone needed my word and heard it in an appropriate time.
I’m reminded of a sixth-grade teacher, Mary, who assigned her class a writing assignment. The assignment was to write a short, positive comment about each of his/her fellow classmates and turn them in to her.
After compiling each student’s list, the teacher passed them out in class. You could hear a pin drop as the students sat quietly, reading what their fellow classmates had written about them. It was a remarkable moment.
Years later, one of the boys, John D., was killed during a hard-fought battle in Viet Nam. His sixth-grade teacher attended the memorial service, along with many fellow students in John’s class.
After the service, John’s father approached Mary and thanked her for coming to the service. He paused and continued. “We found this in his wallet along with his other belongings.
He began unfolding a sheet of paper, yellowed, tattered, and torn. It was the paper containing the comments from his sixth-grade classmates written ten years before.
The father said, “He carried this with him everywhere. I’m told he would often pull it out and read it before almost every major conflict in which he was involved during his time in Viet Nam.”
By now, other students had gathered around and one by one they each began saying that they too had their copy of these comments and how meaningful they were to them. Some even had their copy neatly tucked inside their wallets or pocketbooks.
You see the power of an appropriately placed word?
Has someone seen something in you bigger and greater than you ever dreamed you could be? Those kinds of people become my heroes. What foresight! What insight!
This is a great story and is at the heart of my thoughts for today. Our words change people.
We have the power to change somebody's life. In most cases we will never know when we’ve connected the dots for someone by our words of hope and encouragement, and yet it happens. This power still rests in our hands, and voices, and attitudes.
In the past fourteen years, I’ve written more than 600 blogs, and four books, plus over 130 podcasts. All of them with the intent and purpose of offering hope, encouragement, and inspiration to my readers.
I shall continue writing and speaking for as long as I am physically able, for this is a passion to which I am dedicated.
If you take away any significant thought from this blog, I hope it is this.
You have the power
to change somebody’s life.
Morning Notes Blog Site
P Michael Biggs
Hope~Encouragement~Inspiration
