Friday, July 26, 2024
Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:
We may be the only Easter lily some people ever see.
-- Rev. R. Oelerich
Regardless of how strange it may sound, we are powerful people! We make a difference in others' lives, for good or ill. We enhance people's lives when we encourage, support, and congratulate. It is easy to downplay the importance of our lifting up our fellow pilgrims even though it is no small thing when we are the beneficiaries of such life-giving gifts.
The newspaper ran a story of a teenaged girl who had been a prostitute. The account was mostly an interview in which she repeatedly told of how she had been put down at home, was made to feel she didn't count, was denied affection, and came to believe that what she did mattered little because no one cared.
The story of her lifestyle change came as a result of a hard-won battle by a social worker who unfailingly mirrored back to the girl that she did count, and that she was a person filled with love and beauty. Perhaps neither the parents nor the social worker would think of themselves as powerful, but in this case they made all the difference.
Today, I will be aware that I make a difference. I will make the world a little better for my being in it.
Hazelden Foundation
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