The Greatest Compliment

My parents have raised me to be a responsible person and to know how my actions can affect people around me. They have taught me how to love Jesus with all my heart and show people that particular love through my actions and words. For a long time, I thought no one even noticed me or anything I did. Because of my family's position in our church, people are constantly watching me. And as a child, I didn't realize so many people's eyes were on me. I could easily ruin my family's reputation and with that the church's also. That is a lot of pressure to put on a child or even a teen. Even though I had been told over and over how important my actions were, I never really understood until I had experienced it through creating friendships. I moved a lot when I was young, and because of those experiences, I learned how precious friendships can be and also how much loneliness can hurt. My new friends started leaving people out, and I hated that because I knew how it felt. So I decided to try to be friends with everyone. But with that group of kids, you were either in or out. I decided to become friends with the kids that didn't have friends. I remember one year my friends and I were at a sleep over, and the mom told me to remind everyone to brush their teeth before bed. I asked her why me, and she said because she noticed how responsible I was. I remember how good it made me feel that I was doing something right. Years later that same mom told me that my friend really looked up to me, and she is so thankful I became her friend. She said to me, " I want her to want to serve at church like you do. You make a huge impact on people's lives everywhere you go. You make people want to strive to be the best person they can be. And I'm thankful you are a loyal friend to my daughter because you were just what she needed when you two became friends." That hit me really hard. I had never received such a compliment. And it gave me confidence to keep doing what ever I was doing even though it could be extremely difficult and lonely sometimes, but it makes a difference in the lives of people around me. And that's all that matters.