Last week was our Stake Young Women Leadership Training meeting. The stake yw president read that story of the man who throws the starfish into the ocean. You know the one. It ends with, "It made a difference to that one." She then presented each of us with a starfish pin (shown very poorly above) to wear every Sunday to remind us to treat each girl as an individual and to make a difference in her life. Yesterday was the first "pin Sunday" and I admit it really did serve as a useful reminder to serve in my calling well.But this post is about something that happened a couple of weeks ago. The day after Halloween in fact. The day that I was planning on sleeping in forever. Until the doorbell rang at 8:30am. Now this is not too early-just on that particular morning. I was all set to ignore it thinking that it was FedEx dropping off a package. But then it rang again. And again. I knew Ry was no use in this situation. He can sleep through anything. But curiosity got the better of me and I went to the door (luckily I was already decent, but I was afraid the person would leave so I didn't even put my glasses on.) I looked through the peephole and was not too blind to determine that it was our neighbor girl from next door.
Now you need to know that we are not good neighbors. We wave as we pull into our driveway and immediately shut the garage door behind us. We talk to them once a year when we decorate our tree and that's it. But we know this neighbor the best because when we moved in we brought them cookies. But that was three years ago and we don't even remember their names. But we continue to wave vigorously whenever we see them (which is not often).
So I admit that I was a little surprised at seeing this girl on my front porch. As I opened the door she said in a tearful voice, "I overslept." So of course I invited her in and gave her a ride to school. I still don't know her name as I didn't want to ask her in case she assumed I knew everything about her. But we spent a very pleasant 15 minute ride on our way to Cram Middle School and the whole time I was shocked that this 8th grader would have known that we were nice enough people that we would have been willing to take her to school. Of course she could be completely crazy to get in the car with a perfect stranger, but you know what I mean.
I don't really know the point of this whole story other than it really is true that you never know what kind of a difference you can make in this world. I guess a little waving really can go a long way.
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8 comments:
Isn't it interesting how you don't have to do all that much and people recognize you as someone that can help them? I was at the temple last week and I was starting to pull out of my parking spot when I saw a girl jogging toward my car, apparently trying to get my attention. I rolled down my window and she asked if I could give her a ride to Provo High. No big deal. As we drove she said something like, "I was just praying that I would find someone that could take me, and I saw you and you looked like a nice person." Now, granted, we both were at the temple and you could pretty much assume that almost anyone there would be happy to do such a favor (especially after coming out of the temple). But, it still made me feel good. I was an answer to prayer, and I didn't even have to try very hard!
Good for you, Amy (and you, too, Heather)! I love how both of you agreed to help without even a second thought. This world needs more selfless people like you guys.
I love the story and must agree completely with you, you never know when you could make a difference in someone's life. Thanks for the reminder.
great story! great insights!
Great story and all that, but you should really know your neighbors names! :-) Consider this a chastisement. Now repent and do better! :-) Just kidding you don't have to (but should) as I probably wouldn't know either.
Although when you were saying your blog how you closed the garage door right after getting in I was thinking of the neighbors being crushed by your garage door as they tried to come talk to you. Lol.
I am laughing too hard at the picture of neighbors being squished in the garage dooer, to commment! Ok. There. Way to go Amy! Remember when Marvin would ring the bell when he missed the bus? You are carrying on the tradition. The cute "girl starfish" next door is happy. Love you!
I loved that story... way to be a good neighbor.
Ummm totally random that someone is trying to sell you some odd service in Portuguese. Good luck with that.
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