None of these are bad...... I hung similar posters in my classrooms for encouragement!
What if you don't live according to the world.....
Do you really have to reach for the extreme?
Do you have to hope you make it and that everything will fall into place...or that you just continue?
I think your best is what happens when there is not an audience.
How do you respond to your children when nobody is looking?
How do you interact with your spouse when you aren't around friends, peers, or others?
How do you serve others when it will never be known to another soul?
I love to observe other people.
A couple of days ago I was in the grocery store.
I was fortunate enough to secretly observe a man being GREAT with a teenage boy.....and he didn't know he was being GREAT!
A man grocery shopping and a boy about the age of 15 tagging along....this could be a disaster!
Boy: "have you seen the commercial for the new Subway sandwich?"
**most men at this point would mumble a "...really...." or pretend to be interested....
This man (still shopping) (not fake voice): "no, what is it?" (an interested voice)
Boy proceeds to describe the sandwich in great detail! He obviously loves Subway and wanted to try this sandwich.
The man did not interrupt the boy, let him finish....but did add some "mmmm" at correct points!
Then the man said
"you better not try that sandwich before I get to try it! (humor)
Do you see the canola oil?"
Boy: "here it is"
Man: "how bout the new pizza at...."
Then they turned the aisle and I could not hear the conversation.
Why does this make the man GREAT?
...because he was connecting with this teenage boy! I don't know if it was his son
(probably...who else would torture themselves by taking a teenage boy to the grocery than a parent??)
He wasn't forcing a weird conversation about a topic the boy didn't care.
He didn't stop shopping and make the boy feel awkward when the boy started the conversation on his own. He didn't pretend interest by mumbling words back to the boy.
He spoke like the boy was another adult in an adult conversation and kept it on the topic that interested the teenage boy WHILE shopping so the boy did not feel awkward with the extra attention!
It takes coordination to converse and attend to a teen! That is why this man is GREAT!! He did all this and probably thought it was just he and that teen boy on that grocery aisle! (I was behind a large stack of toilet paper.....not being creepy or anything)
Awesome! Almost made me cry from all the lost opportunities that flashed through my mind, when I wasn't being "great," like the man.
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I am guilty of ignoring or saying "go away"......that is my best...I have so much work to do!!
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