A Life Sentence

The other day I ran into a man I haven’t seen in a while. We reminisced about mutual old friends, and the years we worked beside them. One friend we talked about used to be loud and very hard to get along with, but in time, he softened and became on of my closest work friends. “You made him to be better than he ever thought he could be”, was what this man said of my relationship to our mutual old friend.

Later in the day, I realized I had heard that exact sentence said to me at least 35 years ago from my old boss. I was a young foreman of an excavation company, having a crew of about 7 men. We worked really well together, but it had taken years of training to become that. But 3 times during my years of being a foreman, my boss (the owner of the company) would take one of my operators or laborers from me to make them into a foreman to run their own crew. It annoyed me each time he did, because I had to re-train a new person to take their place, and it took time to get the crew back working as a “well oiled machine”.

The 2nd time he stole one of my men, I said in frustration, “Every time I get them to all work really well together, you come and take one, and I have to start all over to re-train a new one!”

And he said THAT sentence! “Tom, you need to take this as a compliment. You made these men to be better than they ever thought they could be.”

Today, thinking back 35 years from first hearing that sentence, and hearing it again recently I realize, my old boss was gifting me…. a Life Sentence.

Because after him saying it, I felt encouraged, and Hope… to make things a little better,

“…than they ever thought they could be”.

The Key?

Proverbs 18:21 “The tongue has the power of Life and Death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” Choose Life!

We all have someone, (a friend, a spouse, a child, or even a stranger), that we can gift a “Life Sentence” to. And imagine…just a Sentence, could change how they see themselves, for Life.