See Also:
Beginning of a FAMOUS Hero: The Richard Branson Story.
Life Lesson #62 – Think Before You Act.
It was a Wednesday afternoon, and so far things were going pretty smoothly in Mrs. Henry’s class. Well, so far. But right after lunch, Ryan found himself on the floor! He had just been pushed by the boy in the blue shirt. Then, everyone heard the boy say, “My dad’s on the school board, and he’s going to make your dad wish he had never been born!”
“What in the world is going on here?” asked Mrs. Henry. The boy said he had asked Ryan to borrow a pencil and that Ryan had said no. “Where is your pencil?” she asked.
“I forgot it,” he said.
“Did you stop to think that Ryan may need his pencil for class?” she replied.
“No ma’am,” the boy said.
“Okay then. But while we’re here,” said Mrs. Henry, “let’s talk about your father’s position that you seem to be using to justify your behavior. Your father is indeed serving in a very important way, but I fail to see how that makes you special. The boy shrugged his shoulders.
“Do you know anything about Ryan’s father?” Mrs Henry asked. The boy thought for a minute and finally said, no. “So you don’t know that Ryan’s father is in the Army and that he saved a whole company of soldiers in Iraq?” The boy’s eyes started to tear up at that point as he again said, “No ma’am.”
Mrs. Henry paused just a moment before she said, “That’s bigger than school board. A LOT bigger! But the truth is that Ryan’s father and your father are both working to HELP people. That makes them both HEROES. What are you doing to HELP others?” Well, the boy had a lot to think about that evening, and there’s no question that he learned something about being a HERO instead.
– Jim Lord