Our Lives Reflect Our Values

My dad, who passed about a month ago, was a great support when I was writing my book "7 Gifts to Give Your Child." As a pastor and as a parent, he had many life stories that he shared with us and in his sermons. At 68 years, he published his first book of short life stories. The youngest of ten children, he became the family historian and gathered stories of his relatives which included settlers who moved west to stake a claim in the 1800s and a Quaker family whose home was one of the stops on the Underground Railroad route in North Carolina. While helping my mother sort through my dad's belongings, I came across a selection of stories that he had written after his books were published. I would like to share one of them here that reminds me of what is important in life.

Our Lives Reflect Our Values By Millard Osborne
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While waiting for our car to be finished in the service area of the Toyota dealership, we were in the visitors' lounge. Among those who were also waiting was a man who appeared to have come from his place of work to have his vehicle serviced. Wearing his tool belt and a yellow hard hat, he sat across the room from us, so we had no direct conversation with him.

Eventually, he was paged indicating that his vehicle was finished. But before leaving the lounge, he approached us with a broad smile on his face. He stopped directly in front of us and extended his right hand in a gesture of appreciation. His first words were, "I want to congratulate you." At first, we were puzzled by these words from a total stranger. I pondered the meaning of this unexpected greeting. Had we won the lottery or maybe the daily drawing for the door prize?

When I asked him why he had singled us out of all those in the visitors' lounge, we learned that he had been watching us. It seems that he had made some assumptions about us as an older couple. He guessed that we were married and said that he could see that we cared for each other by the way we interacted. Maybe he had observed us as I had gotten coffee and granola bars from the vending machines that we shared together.

He was particularly interested in how long we had been married and asked questions about our family. In turn, we asked about his family and learned that he was a native of California where we were living. He continued to express admiration for the joy and satisfaction we showed for our years of marriage. 

Looking back on this surprising encounter, we realized again how our actions and words communicate the deeper message of our lives more clearly than we may be aware of--even to a stranger in a yellow hard hat.

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