Are You Listening?

The homeroom teacher of a “Senior Honor Students” class once gave them a graduation gift in advance …

The students were permitted one unexcused absence as long as it didn’t conflict with other teachers’ schedules. “All I asked,” said the homeroom teacher, “was that they do something worthwhile and hand in a paragraph sharing that experience. My favorite report came from a young man who wrote, “I went fishing with my grandfather and I listened to him all day long without saying, ‘Grandpa, you already told me that’.”

When you listen to me as you are now doing, and you hear me say, “God loves you infinitely and wants you to become the uniquely beautiful person He created you to be, I can only hope that you will resist the temptation to say, “You already told me that.” Indeed, I can only hope that you will be very much inclined to say, “May your proclamation of this Good News endure. Tell it to me over-and-over…