Think your words don't matter?

I had been looking for one of my childhood friends for a long time.

I wanted to tell him something.

Something that he did once made a big difference in my life.

This kid was one of the cool kids. He had cool hair when the rest of us had to get buzzes because our dad's made us.
He wore cool clothes when I had hand me downs from my older brothers. He had a motorcycle when my parents wouldn't let me near one. He had a drum set and could play the drum solo from In-a-gadda-da-vida when he was in elementary school. Think about that for a minute because that was a pretty big accomplishment.
His dad was cool and he had a cool older brother. We all loved going over to their house because there was always a blast to be had.

Lots of great memories of Brad McFarling.

I don't think I have seen Brad since my family moved to a different town when I was going into the 8th grade.
But, I wanted to find him for a number of reasons. Most of all, I wanted to tell him what he had done for me so many years ago that I still think about almost daily.

In the 7th grade I played football as I did every year I was in school that had a football team to play on. I use the word loosely when I say I 'played' football because truthfully I was never really very good. Easier to admit that now than it ever has been before.
Football season came and went and we entered into a time of the typical school off season program where coaches try to get you in shape and built up for the following season.
I will also admit now that I was a lazy kid.

When you are lazy and you are working out, you look for shortcuts to makes things easier on yourself. Sometimes you don't even do it on purpose. It just happens because you are looking for the easy way out.

I was working out next to my friend, Brad, and obviously I was taking the quickest route to rest my sorry butt. Brad said something to me that I would use the rest of my life and I say it to myself almost daily still to these day almost 40 years later.

"Don't cheat, when you cheat you are only cheating yourself". Bravo, Brad, thanks for those words.

I believe in doing things right and I feel bad inside when I cheat and take shortcuts.
I usually try and tell myself and those around me the same thing Brad told me so many years ago.  This doesn't just work at the gym, but with work and everything else you attempt in life.

I wish I had said something to somebody back in the day that made a difference in their life. I fear I didn't.
This works in reverse, too, and I remember comments about me that were negative from the same time period but I try and blow those off.

But, we all have the same opportunities to bless others with words that build them up or straighten them out in some way if we would just take the time to do it.

This story has no ending. It's not over yet, not by a long shot.
But, it's got another chapter.
This weekend I found my old friend Brad McFarling on facebook.
I let him know that he made a difference in at least one person's life. Of course, being the great person that he is he gave his Dad credit for putting that in him instead of taking the credit.


Sometimes all it takes to make a difference is to just say a few words.