Valentine's Day

I wanted to take the opportunity to share a story, a true story, that was shared with me many years ago. It is about a 4th grader and his Dad. His Dad happen to be a very influential person to me during High School.

Valentine's Day

For some odd reason, Josh's 4th grade teacher decided that this year's Valentine's Day would be "optional". Optional meaning that if the students wanted to bring Valentine's for each other, they could, however they were not required to participate. Josh is a good kid. Strong faith, kind to others and loves to make people smile so when he learned of this news, he was excited to get home and start making Valentine's for all of his classmates.

Josh spent the next few weeks constructing home made Valentine's for all 25 kids in his class. He made them all individualized and attached a special Valentine treat to each and every Valentine. He then decided to make his own envelopes for the Valentines. He worked on making them look all fancy because he wanted each one of his classmates to have an personal and special Valentine. After finishing the envelopes, he worked on making his own Valentine's box, so that he could set it on his desk and receive the Valentines that his classmates would make for him. he spent hours on top of hours working on these projects. He would come home from school and get right to work. Some nights he would work until bed time. He also kept this a secret from his classmates because he wanted to surprise them on Valentine's Day.

Finally, it was Valentine's Day. Josh gathered all of his Valentine's and placed them carefully into a bag to take to school. He had his Valentine Box ready to go and was excited that this day had finally come.

Josh got to his classroom and passed out all of his Valentine's to his classmates. He then placed his box on his desk and was anxious to start receiving his own Valentines. During the first hour of school, his box was empty. Josh didn't worry about it. he just thought that his classmates may not have gotten around to passing theirs out yet. By noon, his box was still empty. Josh was starting to get a little concerned. At the end of the day, no Valentines had made their way into Josh's box. Josh was crushed.

The bell rang and he packed his box into his bag. He felt awful. he tried as hard as he could, but couldn't hold back the tears on the school bus. Other kids on the bus where looking at him, some giggling because he was crying. Finally he was home. He wanted to put this day behind him.

Josh's Dad has watched Josh over the past few weeks and knows how much work he put into making the Valentines. So he decided to wait outside for josh to come home from school to hear, what was certain to be awesome, the response from the other kids. he wanted to share in Josh's excitement, so it was a unpleasant surprise to his Dad when Josh got off the bus with his head down and eyes full of tears.

"What Happened?"

Josh ignored his dad, headed right for his room, slammed the door, put his head in his pillow and cried. Josh cried for an hour. His dad left him alone because Josh is the type of kid that would come to his dad when he was ready to talk.

Josh finally came to his dad and explained how nobody in his class likes him because he did not receive one single Valentine today. He was so angry at himself for putting all the work into making them Valentines and now wishes that he wouldn't have done any at all. He couldn't understand why nobody cared about him. He didn't want to ever go back to school. He hated everybody.

Josh's dad took a deep breathe and had to hold back his own tears.

At this point, Josh's dad could either start making excuses for the other kids or discuss the lesson that was learned on this day. He chose the second option.

He explained to Josh that when you do something nice for others that you shouldn't be focused on your own instant gratification. You do the right thing because it is the right thing to do. he told him that if his purpose for making the Valentines was so that he would get a bunch of Valentines, that he did it for the wrong reasons. If his purpose for making the Valentines was to show his classmates that he appreciated their friendship and wanted to make them smile, then he did it for the right reason. Josh agreed and stated that he just wanted his classmates to know how special they were to him. He added that a lot of them did tell him "Thank You" and were very excited to receive their special cards.

His dad looked at him and asked, "Well I thought you told me you didn't get any Valentines. Isn't their appreciation and reaction to your Valentine a Valentine to you?"

Josh thought about it. He started to smile a bit and agreed with his dad. Josh started feeling better because he knows that he did the right thing, for the right reason and changed some lives in his classroom today.



I think about this story every time I start getting frustrated with people in my life. Frustrated when I help them out and do not get the instant gratification that I was expecting. I have to remind myself that I do the right things for the right reasons. Not because I should expect anything in return, but because it feels good to do the right thing. I often remind my wife that "there does not have to be a logical reason to do the right thing". I just believe it is what God would ask me to do.

If you ever start to feel like Josh; putting hard work and time into something special for someone else and getting no instant gratification or in some situations, not even a "Thank You", I ask that you remember the moral of the story. Even if you feel down in the dumps and have people staring at you and laughing, just remember to continue to do the right things for the right reasons.

As far as what is the "right things". That is for you to figure out, but I will give you a hint....it's the things that you do that make you feel like you've made a difference.