Paul and Silas went first to Derbe and then on to Lystra. There they met Timothy, a young disciple whose mother was a Jewish believer, but whose father was a Greek. Timothy was well thought of by the believers in Lystra and Iconium, so Paul wanted him to join them on their journey (Acts 16:1-3 NLT).

Mark was a student at St. Mary's School in St. Paul, Minnesota.

One Friday, everything seemed to be going wrong. Mark's teacher remembers, "We had worked all week on this new concept of math. I saw that the students were frustrated and discouraged. I had to stop this crankiness before it got out of hand, so I suggested a break. 'Put away the math books,' I said. Then I asked them to make a list of names of students in the class and to leave a space between each name."

Then, the teacher asked each student to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of their classmates and write it down. It took the remainder of the class period.

That Saturday, the teacher wrote down the name of each student on a separate piece of paper, and then she listed what everyone had said about that individual. And on Monday, she gave each student his or her list. Those lists became tiny seeds of the future ... seeds of what each student was to become.

No one ever mentioned those papers in class again. The group of students moved on, and so did the teacher.

Years passed, then one night while coming home after a long trip, the teacher called home and learned that Mark had been killed in Viet Nam. The funeral was the next day and his parents wanted her to attend. She recounts the following events at the funeral:

One by one, those of us who loved Mark walked by the coffin. I was one of the last to walk by. One of the pallbearers asked if I was Mark's math teacher. I nodded, as I continued to stare at the coffin.

"Mark talked a lot about you," the soldier said.

After the funeral, most of Mark's former classmates gathered at Mark's house. "We want to show you something," Mark's mother whispered to the teacher. "They found this paper inside Mark's wallet." The old notebook paper had been taped and folded and re-taped many times. It was that old list they had made in math class. Mark's mother continued, "Thank you for doing that. As you can see, he treasured it."

Mark's classmates gathered around. Charlie smiled and said, "I still have my list in the top drawer of my desk at home."

Chuck's wife said that Chuck had asked her to put his in their wedding album.

"And I have mine, too," Marilyn said. "It's in my diary."

Vickie reached into her purse and pulled out her wallet and showed her torn list from the class. "I think we all kept our lists."

Mark's teacher was remembered, not because they learned math skills, but because she planted seeds of the future in the lives of her students. And, she showed them how to do the same.

What's in your wallet?

Who helped you to see the future in yourself before you knew it was there?

What's in your wallet?

Get a group of friends together this week and talk about the people you've known who had the faith to see the future in you even while you were living in the past. Who helped plant the seeds of your future? Use these questions as a guide:

1. When did you begin to understand that faith sees the future in people before they can see it in themselves?
2. Who helped you make this discovery?
3. How did they do it?
4. How did that change your life?

Courageous Leadership by Bill Hybels Bill Hybels shares the passionate cry of his heart: the local church is the hope of the world and its future rests in the hands of its leaders.

Ron Rose is a noted author and Director of Faith in Families. His new email minsitry, Faith Fitness, provides practical resources for growing faith. For more details, click here.

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