Leaving Your Thumbprint

So many people have called my husband a “loveable Teddy Bear.” And he is. And this week, someone at work came up to him and in front of a group of people began telling him how kind, nice, thoughtful he was.  The person went on and on, and out of embarrassment my husband walked away.

The point is this, we seldom realize how much we affect others.  We think our lives are small, filled with ordinary jobs, laundry, cooking, cleaning, and a hundred other mundane chores.  We don’t live the large life of a Billy Graham, a man with a giant footprint. And because we believe this we think we can’t make a difference. Nothing is further from the truth.  Each of us will touch hundreds of people in our lifetime, and impact them for either good or bad. 

A friend of mine loves to sing.  But because someone told her long ago she couldn’t carry a tune, she claims she won’t even sing in the shower.  Karen Carpenter, the famous 70s singer, once read a newspaper article about her brother, Richard, where, in one small sentence, the reporter called her the chubby little sister.  From that day on being thin became an obsession, and she battled an eating disorder for years until it finally claimed her life. 

These are obvious negative impacts. But the reverse also holds true.  How many times has a kind word here, a smile there, lifted our spirits? How many times has just the right word stopped us from doing something stupid? Made us dare to follow our dream, or not quit at something? We may not leave a giant footprint, like Billy Graham, but we’re all going to leave our thumbprints on the people who cross our lives.  And the thing is, we’ll probably never know the far reaching impact we’ve had on them until we get to the other side of glory.

In this season of good will and cheer, it’s easy to want to go that extra mile to be kind to someone, to spend more time listening, to care more for others. And that’s a good thing.  But let’s not forget that when the tree is packed away and the tinsel taken down and stashed in the attic for another year, people are still going to need plenty of good will, and it’s up to us whether or not we make a positive imprint on their lives.

Until next week,

Sylvia