See Also:
Beginning of a FAMOUS Hero: The Carter Woodsen Story.
Life Lesson #91 – Learn to Deal With Bullies.
Larry was everybody’s friend. He made good grades, and he was always very HELPFUL. The other students thought he told the funniest stories, and he was a good listener, too if anyone had a problem. But most of the time, none of them paid any attention to Larry’s limp. They had grown up with him and knew that his leg had been injured in a car accident before they even started to school. Of course, Larry couldn’t run very fast or play ball very well, but he wrote great stories and played the piano better than anybody else in the school.
One day a new boy moved into the neighborhood and started attending Larry’s school. On his very first day, he tried to impress everybody by bragging about all the things he could do better than anybody else. Then he stopped and pointed down the hall and said in a loud voice, “Hey, who’s that dude that can’t walk?”
Then the boy started copying the way Larry limped. The new boy was laughing and thought his new friends would laugh with him, but instead everyone was very quiet. Larry came closer and with a big smile he said, “Hi, I’m Larry. You must be the new guy I heard about.”
Suddenly, the boy felt very ashamed of himself. He realized that he had just been totally insensitive. “Hey, it’s nice to meet you,” he said, barely able to look Larry in the eye. He knew Larry must have seen the way he was acting, but Larry was friendly to him anyway.
The boy knew the difference in HELPING and hurting, and he certainly knew Larry was the HERO type. He felt so bad about what he had done that right then and there, he decided to stop bragging about himself and start being a little more like Larry instead.
– Jim Lord