A really touching exerpt from a story

[Mr. SmartyPants]

this was taken from my friends xanga
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"Hello everyone... I know it's been awhile since I've done any updating here... so I figured it's time to start saying things that actually might impact you... So here goes. This is an excerpt from the book "Messy Spirituality" by Michael Yaconelli. This part in the book made me cry very much when I read it.... it is such an amazing image...

pg. 45 line 23 "For almost forty years Margaret had lived with the memory of one soul-scarring day in the one-room schoolhouse she attended. From the first day Margaret came to class, she and Ms. Garner, her bitter and harsh teacher, didn't get along. Over the years, the animosity between them only worsened until one fateful day when she was nine years old, Margaret's life was forever altered. That day, Margaret frantically raced into her classroom after recess, late again. Ms. Garner was furious. "Margaret!" she shouted, "we have been waiting for you! Get up here to the front of the class, right now!" Margaret walked slowly to the teacher's desk, was told to face the class, and then the nightmare began. Ms. Garner ranted "boys and girls, Margaret has been a bad girl. I have tried to help her be responsible, but apparently she doesn't want to learn. So we must teach her a lesson, we must show her how selfish a person she has become. I want each of you to come to the front of the room, take a piece of chalk, and right something bad about Margaret on the blackboard. Maybe this experience will motivate her to become a better person!" Margaret stood frozen next to Ms. Garner. One by one, the students began a silent procession to the blackboard. "Margaret is stupid! Margaret is selfish! Margaret is fat! Margaret is a dummy!" on and on they went until 25 terrible scribblings of Margarets "badness" screamed from the blackboard. Forty years later, she was slumped in the waiting room of a psychologist's office, still cringing in the shadow of those 25 sentences... to her horror, Margaret had slowly become what the students had written.

Pg. 55 line 12

Two long years of weekly counseling helped Margaret to finally extricate herself from her past. It had been a long and difficult road, but she smiled at her counselor (How long it had been since she smiled!) as they talked about her readiness to move on. "Well Margaret," the counselor said softly, "I guess it's graduation day for you. How are you feeling?" after a long silence, she said, "I... I'm okay." The counselor hesitated, "Margaret, I know this will be difficlt, but just to make sure you're ready to move on, I am going to ask you to do something. I want to go back to your schoolroom and detail the events of that day. Take your time. Describe each of the children as they approach the blackboard, remember what they wrote and how you felt, all 25 students. In a way, this would be easy for Margaret. For forty years she had remembered every detail. And yet, to go through the nightmare one more time would take every bit of strength she had. After a long silence, she began the painful description. One by one, she described each of the students vividly, as though she had just seen them, stopping periodically to regain her composure, forcing herself to face each of the students one more time. Finally she was done, and the tears would not stop, could not stop. Margaret cried a long time before she realized someone was whispering her name, "Margaret. Margaret. Margaret." she looked up to see her counselor staring into her eyes, saying her name over and over again. Margaret stopped crying for a moment. "Margaret. You..... you left out one person." "I certainly did not! I have lived with this story for forty years! I know every student by heart." "No, Margaret you did forget someone. See, he's sitting in the back of the classroom. He's standing up, walking towards your teacher, Ms. Garner. She's handing him a piece of chalk and he's taking it, Margaret, he's taking it! Now he's walking over to the blackboard and picking up an eraser. He is erasing every one of the sentences the students wrote. They are gone! Margaret, they are gone! Now he's turning and looking at you, Margaret. Do you recognize him yet? Yes, his name is Jesus. Look, he's writing new sentences on the board, "Margaret is loved. Margaret is beautiful. Margaret is gentle and kind. Margaret is strong. Margaret has great courage."" And Margaret began to weep. But very quickly, the weeping turned into a smile, and then into laughter, and then into tears of joy.

Well... to tell the truth it was very difficult for me to type this from the book... I could barely read anymore once I got towards the end... it's so hard not to cry when you read this story... well thank you for your time. Leave me your comments, I appreciate them! ^_^"

to me, this story just made me all warm and fuzzy, and brought tears to my eyes

Jesus is so awesome

if you would like to comment on his xanga, be more than welcome to do so, just make sure you say that you know me (evlgy5) or else he will wonder who you are hehe

his xanga is
http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=SeekerofGod85

[sanitysux13]

If only I had read that 5 years ago.

[dragonshimmer]

.....
Mr SP, thank you for posting that. I think the tears streaming down my face right now are proof that I was one of the people that needed to see that. God has a way...of speaking to people...through other people. Thank you.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

yes, it brought tears to my eyes too

[agasfas]

NIce story Smarty pants. I think many of us can relate to this story one way or another. There has been times when many believed they were fat, ugly (unattractive), too short etc... Kids can be so cruel, and sometimes the after affect sticks around w/ us for a while. At times it can be hard to move forward, but like the story suggests, Jesus can ease all those bad things and help us be able to start anew. Good story.