THE POWER OF TRUE KINDNESS

Miss Thompson was a school teacher who every year would say to her
students, "Boys and Girls, I love you all the same. I have no favorites."
Of course, she wasn't being completely truthful. Teachers do have
favorite and, what's worse, most teachers have students that they simply don't
like.

Teddy Stallard was a boy that Miss Thompson simply didn't like, and for
good reason. He didn't seem interested in school. He wore a deadpan, blank
expression on his face, and his eyes were glassy and unfocused. His
clothes were mussed and his hair unkempt. He wasn't an attractive boy, and he
certainly wasn't likeable.

The records read:
1st grade: Teddy shows promise with his work and attitude, but poor home situation.

2nd grade: Teddy could do better. Mother is seriously ill. He receives
little help at home.

3rd grade: Teddy is a good boy, but too serious. He is a slow learner.
His mother died this year.

4th grade: Teddy is very slow, but well-behaved. His father shows no
interest.

At Christmas, the boys and girls in Miss Thompson's class brought her
presents, piled them on her desk, and crowded around to watch her open
them. Among the presents was one from Teddy Stallard. She was surprised that
he had brought her a gift. Teddy's gift was wrapped in brown paper and
held together by scotch tape. On the paper were written the simple words,
"For Miss Thompson. From Teddy." When she opened Teddy's present, out fell a
gaudy rhinestone bracelet, with half the stones missing, and a bottle of
cheap perfume.

The other boys and girls began to giggle and smirk over Teddy's gifts,
but Miss Thompson at least had enough sense to silence them by immediately
putting on the bracelet and dotting some of the perfume on her wrist.
Holding her wrist up for the other children to smell, she said,
"Doesn't it smell lovely?" The other children, taking their cue from the teacher,
readily agreed with "oohs" and "ahs".

When school was over and the other children had left, Teddy lingered
behind. He slowly came over to her desk and said softly, "Miss Thompson, you
smell just like my mother.. and her bracelet looks real pretty on you too. I'm
glad you liked my presents."

When Teddy left, Miss Thompson got down on her knees and asked God to
forgive her. The next day when the children came to school, they were welcomed by a
new teacher. Miss Thompson had became a different person. She was no
longer just a teacher; she became an agent of God, committed to loving her
children and doing things for them that would live on after her. She helped all
the children, but especially the slow ones, and especially Teddy Stallard.

By the end of that school year, Teddy showed dramatic improvement. Once
the school year ended, Miss Thompson didn't hear from Teddy for a long time.
Then one day she received a note that read:

Dear Miss Thompson,
I wanted you to be the first to know. I will be graduating second in
my class.

Love, Teddy Stallard

Four years later, another note came:

Dear Miss Thompson,
They just told me that I will be graduating first in my class. I wanted
you to be the first to know. The university has not been easy, but I have
had a good four years.

Love, Teddy Stallard.

And, four years later:

Dear Miss Thompson,
As of today, I am Theodore Stallard, M.D. How about that? I wanted
you to be the first to know. I am getting married next month, the twenty-
seventh to be exact. I want you to come and sit where my mother would
sit if she were alive. You are the only one family I have now. Dad died
last year.
Love, Teddy Stallard

Miss Thompson went to that wedding and sat where Teddy's mother would
have sat. She deserved to be there; she had done something for Teddy that he
could never forget...........................