|
____________________________
*Small Victories* 3/20/02 ____________________________ If you enjoy this free daily email service, I encourage you to spread the word to family and friends that we may bring inspiration into the lives of many! If you are not on the list and this has been passed along to you, join the thousands of HeartTouchers.com readers around the world by sending an e-mail with the word "Subscribe" in the subject line to: HeartTouchers@aol.com Visit our inspirational web site and read all the past stories in our archives at: http://www.HeartTouchers.com ____________________________________________ From now on we will be offering our book, Straight From the Heart "A Celebration of Life" for only $13 (instead of the regular price of $14.95), and best of all, we will pay the shipping! So if you have any interest in purchasing an autographed copy of the book for yourself, or as a gift for your loved ones, now is the time to get it! To order your autographed copy send a check or money order for $13 (We pay the shipping!) for each book made out to Michael T. Powers, and then send it to: Michael T. Powers 1918 Liberty Lane Janesville, WI 53545 To preview the book by reading some of the stories visit: http://www.HeartTouchers.com/michael_t__powers/ AOL Users Click below: Straight From the Heart: A Celebration of Life _________________________________________ Small Victories By Mary-Ellen Grisham Standing in the noisy cafeteria of the old school, I was watching the students line up for lunch. Having wearied of trying to "cut" in line on each other, they were intently moving toward the food. As I continued to watch their progress, I began to remember scenes from my own grade school days. This old school building was somewhat similar to mine. I could still remember coming into the warm building with the funny smells of furnace heat and cleaning liquids. I visualized the rooms, heated with old-fashioned steam pipe radiators and the hand-turn heat regulators. I could picture the Spartan desks in long straight rows, with scratched and scared surfaces, and the small cloak closets with wood doors folding in along the back of the room. "Teacher," a small hand tugged my wrist, "I can't eat my lunch," complained a small Asian American boy, standing behind me. My thoughts abruptly returned to the present in the cafeteria of the old school where I was substitute teaching. "What's wrong?" I replied as I watched the last of the lunch line disappear into the kitchen. "Why not?" I asked as I turned to face the cafeteria at large. "Jamal and Anthony keep poking at my food. I don't want to eat it!" Making my way to his lunch table, I took up Lee's cause. I admonished the children, "Keep your hands to yourselves and eat properly!" My repeated warnings went unheeded, and I began to move the children to different spots at the table. To no avail--as soon as Lee sat down, the pestering began again. As the hearty children began finishing their food, I urged Lee to go back to the kitchen to get a second lunch, promising I would speak to the cooks for him. When I went out to playground duty, he was still sitting in front of his second tray, picking at the food. I tried not to worry about the thin child because I remembered that I had not always eaten my cafeteria lunches and I survived. I substituted frequently at this school, and in a few weeks, I was back in Lee's small class. Both the teacher and the assistant were absent. The children in this room had some learning difficulties, and each child had different instructions and activities. I soon realized that Lee had a problem with staying on task and with anger. As I moved through the room, I stopped by each child to check on progress and to help with work. Lee was working with educational coloring sheets, and I let him work on his pictures in sequence rather than finishing one at a time. Doing a part of each until all were completed seemed to suit his temperament. He began to smile as if he and I shared a huge joke. This time, I did not have lunch duty, so I lined the children up and led them to the cafeteria where another teacher took charge of their progress through the line. I went back to the room to check each child's work again and eat a quick sandwich. In fifteen minutes, Lee was back in the room, unable to eat lunch again, having left the cafeteria without permission. I gave him some money, the cost of an alternate lunch, and walked him down to the cafeteria. At the end of lunch, Lee was back in the room with the young man assigned to the room as psychological counselor. Evidently, a cafeteria supervisor sent him to be counseled about his difficulties with eating. Slowly, with shyness and pride, he handed me my money back and told me what he and the counselor had rehearsed. "Thank you, Mrs. Grishan (his pronunciation), but my mom and dad will not let me accept money. They provide my food." I smiled, accepted the money, and watched Lee go with the counselor for further discussion. When he returned, the counselor stayed with him to keep him sweet and on task. Later in the year, I was back at the same school to substitute with a large fourth grade class for a week. The day I had lunch duty, I noticed as I glanced quickly around the cafeteria that Lee's table was at peace. They were eating quietly and were not teasing each other. Lee was eating too, and as he looked at me intensely, I glanced away because I did not want to interfere with his concentration on his food. I know, though, that I was smiling, and my heart was singing. I thought of the phrase, "all the little children of the world, brown and yellow, black and white," and these precious children were all getting along just fine. I knew that major work by persistent teachers, a dedicated counselor, fine administrators, and parents willing to partner with the school had wrought a change in the life of these troubled children. (To protect their privacy, I did not use the children's real names.) Mary-Ellen Grisham, Copyright (c)2001 fantasy@apci.net Write Mary-Ellen and let her know what you thought of her story! _______________________________ Mary-Ellen Grisham is a Christian writer living in Godfrey, Illinois, with her husband and son. Her poetry and stories may be seen at many Internet sites, among them Perspectives, and Ripplemakers. She writes for the Eternal Ink newsletter and contributes religious writings to The Upper Room, Lookout, and Christian Standard. Mary was recently appointed acting Editor-in-Chief of Eternal Ink, a Christian E-zine which is published twice a month. She is seeking writers to submit devotions, poetry, anecdotes, humor, prayers, and prayer requests. Eternal Ink is inter-denominational and non-denominational Christian, with a firm basis in Scripture. Word lengths: devotions (1000 words or less), poetry (about thirty lines or less), anecdotes or features (250-500 words), and prayers or prayer requests (50-75 words or less). Please send inquiries or copy to Mary-Ellen Grisham at: fantasy@apci.net Gratefully and prayerfully, Mary-Ellen http://www.eternal-ink.net/frameset.htm _________________________________________ Thought For The Day: "Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are stiffened." --Billy Graham Verse for the Day: "...stand firm in the faith; be men of courage, be strong." 1 Corinthians 16:13 Kid's Thought For The Day: "Seashells should always be found, not bought." Parent's Thought For The Day "God in his infinite wisdom gives us twelve years to develop a love for our children before turning them into teenagers." Coach's Thought For The Day "Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom." --General George S. Patton Writer's Thought For the Day: "The way you define yourself as a writer is that you write very time you have a free minute. If you didn't behave that way you would never do anything." --John Irving Deep Thought For The Day: What if someone had a huge tattoo that said, I hate tattoos. Man, that would be confusing. ___________________________________________ REQUESTS: Dear HeartTouchers, I am writing to you today to request prayer for a fifteen year old boy named Gabriel. He recently learned that he has a tumor wrapped around his spine, and it very well could be malignant. He is scheduled for surgery on Thursday, at Riley Children's Hospital in Indianapolis. This boy was conceived after many years of prayer, so we know that he is special to God. He may have to have chemotherapy, and could possibly lose strength in his legs, so needs all the prayer he can get! You can write to him at: emh122686@aol.com He is a good Christian boy and has the following website if you want to keep abreast of what is happening with him. www.netcom100.net Thanks, D. Anne Jones DAJSB@aol.com ___________________________________________ _ /_/\/\ MICHAEL T. POWERS \_\ / HeartTouchers@aol.com /_/ \ "For I have been crucified with Christ and I no \_\/\ \ longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I \_\/ live in the body I live for the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." Galatians 2:20 ___________________________________________ The copyrights to the stories that appear in HeartTouchers.com are owned by the authors and are used with their permission. We refuse to run stories without the author's permission and contact info listed after the story. We also refuse to publish stories listed as "author unknown." (All of which violates Copyright Law and the rights of the authors.) This e-mail may be forwarded in its entirety, but please do not cut and paste the stories to be used elsewhere unless you have contacted and been given permission by the individual writer. Thank you so much for honoring the rights of those writers who graciously share their stories with us! __________________________________________ Video Imagery --Michael's Video Production Business "I thought of you first after my family sat down to watch the video we gave them. They loved it, to say the least! Within thirty seconds my mom was crying and my dad did too. They said it was the best Christmas gift we could have given them!! You did such a beautiful job! They were so surprised and so touched--they really, really, really loved it. Thanks for helping to make it so special to us all. My mom mentioned how the songs were perfect for the video too! Thanks again!" Kelli-- College Station, TX Let me make you a video from your photos! Check out my video production business by visiting: http://www.hearttouchers.com/video_imagery/ AOL Users click here: Video Imagery ___________________________________________ Would you like to see your story in HeartTouchers.com? Writer's guidelines can be found on our Web site here: http://www.HeartTouchers.com/guidelines/ AOL Users click here: Writer's Guidelines ___________________________________________ SUBSCRIBE: "I need a daily source of inspiration and encouragement in my life!" To become a HeartTouchers.com Member send an e-mail with "Subscribe" in the subject line to: HeartTouchers@AOL.COM Then get ready to laugh, cry, and be deeply touched by some of the best stories on the Internet! __________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: All you have to do is send an e-mail with the word "Unsubscribe" in the subject line to: HeartTouchers@aol.com Give it a day or two to be processed... __________________________________________ Do you feel as if life has no meaning for you? http://www.greatcom.org/english/four.htm AOL Users click here: The Four Spiritual Laws __________________________________________ |
 |
|
Touching Lives - One E-mail at a Time! Author Michael T. Powers - HeartTouchers @ aol.com
|