Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.
Leo Buscaglia
Many times, people just don’t know what to say. My dear friend Elfie in Austria has been battling cancer for over a year now. She tells me how things are going for her and, to me, it doesn’t sound good at all. I don’t know what to say and fumble for words. Finally, I just say that I love her and will be praying for her. The words seem inadequate to me but I bet they are not.
It really doesn’t take much to reach out to someone. I remember I was a junior in high school and during English, we were having a class discussion about being poor. We were always struggling and, at the time, my parents were drinking heavily. I guess something of what I was feeling showed through because the teacher asked me to stay after class.
She started by telling me her father served in Korea and had been disabled and was now an alcoholic. She told me that her home life was very unhappy. She just wanted me to know that she thought I was a terrific person, very smart and I could go far and if I ever wanted to talk to her about how I was feeling she would understand. I was totally taken aback. I never confided in her because of the rule “Don’t talk, don’t think, don’t feel.” I didn’t forget what she said to me, though, and I sort of took it to heart.
There have been other people in my life who have smiled at me, held my hand, listened to me or hugged me … and that really has made all the difference in the world! I need to keep that in mind whenever I think, I don’t know what to say to someone hurting.