[T]here is a friend who sticks
closer than a brother.
—Proverbs 18:24
In 1957, Sam Rayburn—the longest-tenured Speaker of the House of Representatives in history—received the news late one night that a friend’s teenage daughter had died in an accident. Early the next morning Sam walked through his friend’s front door, went to the kitchen and started making breakfast.
The surprised father said, “Mr. Speaker, I read that you and Senator Johnson were to have breakfast with the president at the White House this morning.”
“We were supposed to,” Sam said, “but I called the president’s secretary and told her that I have a friend who’s suffered a terrible loss, and I have to be with him. I can’t come to breakfast.”
It’s a cold world at times. We all skid through icy patches where we need the warmth of comforting companions.
Someone needs you. Be alert.
You can’t help everyone,
but you can help someone.