See Also:
Beginning of a FAMOUS Hero: The Rachel Joy Scott Story.
Life Lesson #54 – The Golden Rule.
It was Friday morning, and Eric had just gotten to school. As he walked down the hall toward his classroom, he saw the guy who lived right behind him. The problem was that the boy was walking toward Eric, but looking back and yelling at one of Eric’s friends. It all happened in just an instant. Eric tried to move out of the way, but in the crowded hallway, it just couldn’t be done. Then WHAM! The boy crashed right into Eric. “Watch out where you’re going,” the boy barked. He acted like it was all Eric’s fault. When Eric got to his class, his teacher greeted him with a smile and said, “Good morning!” Eric said, “Yeah, whatever,” but he did it under his breath so that the teacher did not really hear him. Eric was angry all day long, and not very nice to anybody.
At home that evening, his dad asked Eric how his day went. “Terrible,” said Eric, and then he explained what had happened. Eric’s father began to understand quickly that Eric had treated other people badly all day, because his day started with someone treating him badly. He also knew that the boy who started the whole thing had a bad start himself, because he had heard a lot of shouting going on at the boy’s house early that morning. Eric still wanted to go and hurt the boy, but Eric’s father said, “Anytime you fight fire with fire, everybody gets burned.” Instead, why don’t you invite him to go to Eagle’s Mountain with us tomorrow? C’mon, I’ll go with you.” Eagle’s Mountain was the coolest theme park anywhere!
Beginning that day, the two boys became friends, and as time went on, the boy actually started being nicer to people. He and Eric had already heard a lot at school about people who HELP and people who hurt, and it really started to make sense to both of them that becoming HEROES who HELP others was by far the better choice.
– Jim Lord