There was a little girl in Chloe and Madeline's room. She was handicapped. Very handicapped. She sat in a wheelchair all day where her stick-thin legs hung over the frame, and her head seemed too big for her body that was withering away. She could barely hold her head up, because she had no neck muscles, and nothing to look at, so her head just hung there, attached by a small neck, drooping over the front of her little body. A life long of never wanting to hold your head up robs you of all your neck muscles.
In the orphanage, Madeline and Chloe would work with her. Their goal for her was to hold her head up by herself. She could do it, but she just never wanted to try. But they would smile at her, and say "Keep your head up!" every time they caught her head hanging down. She was usually lazy and wouldn't hold her head up for the workers, but when Chloe and Madeline were watching, and told her, "Keep your head up!", she did better.
This little girl lived her life in the orphanage, except for the few occasions she would leave to go to the hospital because she was sick. Orphans get sick a lot. Perhaps because they do not have a lot to live for. Perhaps because of sanitation. Perhaps because of too many children within too few walls.
So, again, this little girl got sick. And had to go to the hospital.
In the afternoon, Chloe, Madeline, and Hannah went to the hospital to visit the orphans there and were surprised to find the girl they knew from the orphanage! The little girl immediately recognized them and started smiling. They went over to her, took her big but fragile 10 year old body out of the crib, and just held her. She was sick. She needed love. She needed rest.
As soon as they took her in their arms, however, without even being asked, this sick little girl started grunting, and soon enough- her head was up. Madeline told her, “Oh, little (girl), you don't have to hold your head up today. You're in the hospital, you're sick, you can just rest and get better today.”
But her head stayed up strong, because she wanted to be good for them.
Why is that? She doesn't like trying to hold up her head. After a lifetime in the orphanage, she had lost her neck muscles because she never wanted to hold up her head. It wasn't worth it to her. Even babies want to hold their head up. But she didn't. So why did she try so hard, without being asked, for Chloe and Madeline?
Because- THEY LOVE HER, and she knows it, so she wants to please them and be good for them. Hannah said she was really touched and she almost started crying.
That is the secret to making people do things they really don't want to do. Loving them.
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