Two Johnny’s in One Week…

This is David (Alisa’s husband) stealing Alisa’s blog.

I wanted to share something inspirational because something tells me when I hear the same story in two different states in the same week at work and at church, I should share it. I also wanted to express my appreciation for the best Mom in the world – my wife, Alisa.

So let’s get to the story. There was a boy with Down’s Syndrome named Johnny. He worked at a supermarket. One day he attended a meeting with his fellow employees and a guest speaker. The speaker said, “Every one of you can make a difference, and create memories for customers that will make them want to come back.”

Johnny listened. And then he asked himself, “What I can do? I am just a bagger.” So Johnny went home and thought about it.

A month later the store manager called the guest speaker. “Johnny’s line was longer than everyone else’s line. When I got on the intercom to say there were other open lines, nobody moved from Johnny’s line.”

Here was Johnny's idea. Every time a customer went through Johnny’s line, Johnny put his own thought for the day in the bag and said “thanks for shopping with us.” He had decided to create thoughts for the day on his home computer, print them out and bring them to work everyday.

Well Johnny’s inspiration became the store’s inspiration. A new attitude became apparent in the store. The flower shop handed out tops of flowers that had broken off to senior citizen women and young women to pin on their shirts. Customer service reached a whole new level. A woman called to say that she normally shopped every two weeks but that now she stopped in whenever she was driving by just to get Johnny’s thought for the day.

Well how does this story relate to Mother’s Day and Alisa. Well, I think it does in two ways. For one, mothers are underappreciated and I think don’t they realize the difference they make . Take Alisa for instance. Every day of her life she impacts Madeleine’s life. She encourages her, coaches her, helps her learn, and helps her grow into being a young girl with confidence, poise and her very own personality. Madeleine is a sweet, beautiful young girl and I know Alisa is a big reason why. She not only has her beauty, but also
her zest for life, her outgoing personality and her desire to serve others. Thank you Alisa for being such a great mom. You deserve more thanks than I can give.

Now the second reason I think Johnny’s story is relevant here is because Alisa needs to start saying “Yes, I can” when it comes to her writing. When Johnny thought beyond the idea of “I’m just a bagger” it changed people’s lives.

What can Alisa do? “I’m not sure I can be a novelist and publish anything,” says Alisa. Psshtosh. I am throwing down the gauntlet and I want Alisa to work on having something accepted for publication by this Fall. This will require constant badgering from all of you. But together we can be the motivation to make this writer write. And I believe her writing will touch many people.

Are you in?


You can see the video on Johnny through this link "The Simple Truths of Service."