If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,

Or help one fainting robin
Into his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.

-Emily Dickinson

* * *
Young Mrs. Benson had been so miserable! Her husband was away on a “refresher course,” sent by his firm, and for the first time in her married life she had been left in the house on her own. My wife popped in to try to cheer her up. To her surprise, Mrs. Benson met her with a smile on her face.

“I’ve had another visitor,” she explained. “She made me feel so ashamed. But I’m so glad.” My wife couldn’t quite understand what Mrs. Benson meant.

“It was the woman from around the corner,” she explained. “Her husband was killed recently in a car accident and she’s left with three small daughters. To think that in her trouble she could remember to look in to see how I was! Suddenly she made me feel like the luckiest woman in the world.”

Mrs. Benson was silent for a moment. Then she added quietly, “I think I’ve learned something. Perhaps the only way to cure your own unhappiness is by trying to help someone else in theirs.”

- Francis Gay

* * *
What does love look like? It has hands to help others. It has feet to go to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and sadness. It has ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like.

- St. Augustine

* * *
A smile of encouragement at the right moment may act like sunlight on a closed flower-it may be the turning point for a struggling life.

* * *
About 200 years ago a well-known encyclopedia discussed the word “atom” with the use of only four lines. But five pages were devoted to a discussion of “love.” In a recent edition of the same encyclopedia, five pages were given to the word “atom”; “love” was omitted. What a sad commentary on modern values!

* * *
Stephen Grellet was a French-born Quaker who died in the U.S. in 1855. Grellet would be unknown to the world today except for a short prayer which lives on. The familiar lines, which have served as an inspiration to so many, are these: “I shall pass through this world but once. Any good that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now and not delay it. For I shall not pass this way again.”

HOW CAN ONE PERSON MAKE A DIFFERENCE?

Thoughts From David Brant Berg

Even the little things you do can mean a lot: A little bit of love goes such a long way! The light of your smile, the kindness of your face, the influence of your life, can shed light on many, and have an amazing effect on some people you think might be the least likely to be impressed.

When people feel your love and you tell them it’s God’s love, they kind of feel like, “Maybe somebody up there does love me!” It changes their whole outlook and gives them a real uplook!

There are so many people searching for love! People everywhere are looking around for some little ray of hope, some salvation, some bright spot somewhere!-A little love, a little mercy, someplace where they can find some relief!-And if you can show them that love exists, then they can believe that God exists, because “God is love!” (The Bible, 1 John 4:8).

Love Makes a Difference, Copyright © 1998-2012, The Family International