The Immortality of Influence by Salome Thomas-El & Cecil Murphey

Author:Salome Thomas-El & Cecil Murphey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington Books
Published: 2010-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

As I’ve already pointed out in this chapter, each of us has the ability to impact others. We can also learn to listen without interrupting. Sometimes that’s the way we can have the most influence: We listen without offering advice or telling others how to solve their problems. As we actively listen—that is, when we try to grasp not only their words but also the emotions that go along with them—we feel their heart and their pain.

Our own pain begins to ease because we see others who struggle. Some of them are able to overcome problems because of our influence. That happens when we establish a relationship and it gives us the opportunity to lift them up when they feel low.

I’ve been able to deal with my own daily struggles because I have helped others while understanding that they were people on whom I can lean.

Many times I have looked for ways to ease my own pain, when the blessing was in helping someone else. By helping them, I helped myself. On many occasions, I’ve realized that in helping someone else, I was being blessed.

We meet people whom we would never have come into contact with if we hadn’t taken our present jobs. What would it be like if we saw that our primary purpose in a job was not only to do the best work we’re capable of but also to positively influence others? Instead of our work being our source of income, it becomes a place of service.

In the summer of 2005, I returned to Walt Disney World for the first time since my trip with the chess students in 1996. I wasn’t on a quest to find the benefactor who had blessed fifteen students from the inner city of Philadelphia with admission to the park. This time, I was there on business. I attended a week-long conference at Disney’s Contemporary Resort, hosted by Nova Southeastern University—the largest independent university in Florida. Although their main campus is in Fort Lauderdale, they have education centers or campuses in cities around the country as well as several international campuses. I am currently completing my doctorate in educational leadership at their education center in Bucks County, near Philadelphia.

On the first day of the conference, I had been asked to give a speech to open the session. I never imagined I would be blessed with the opportunity to meet so many students of all races from various parts of the country and the world. Many of the students were teachers, administrators, counselors, and social workers—all of them serving God by serving His children.

Later, as I ate alone in the restaurant, a female employee asked me if everything was going okay. I nodded, because I was thinking about a situation back in Philadelphia and I wasn’t too much interested in talking. She seemed satisfied that I had acknowledged her.

To change my mood, I picked up the Orlando newspaper and began to read. I overheard her say to a much younger employee, “This is how we treat every customer in this restaurant.

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