101 Healing Stories for Kids and Teens

of her feet so they didn’t get tangled, causing her to fall. When her mind and muscles were working
together, when everything flowed smoothly, it felt pretty good.
As she jumped, she remembered that her grandmother had given her the rope for Christmas.
She knew that her grandmother didn’t have a lot of money and had to save up to buy the jump rope.
Before Christmas, her grandmother had taken her to some toy shops to look at different things, hop-
ing to subtly find out what Katie wanted. When Katie got not just ajump rope but the very jump
rope she really wanted, she felt especially loved by her grandmother.
As she skipped, a boy rushed across the road. He ripped her special jump rope from her hands,
shouting, “Give me that” and raced back across the road toward the park.
What a horrible boy, thought Katie. At first she was shocked and upset; but when she thought, He
has stolen the jump rope my grandma gave me for Christmas,she became very angry. Then, thinking she
had lost her jump rope forever, she felt sad and found tears welling up in her eyes.
Racing across the park in the direction the boy had gone, she saw that a younger child had fallen
into a pond. The boy had thrown an end of her jump rope out for the child to grab. Thinking to her-
self, That little kid could drown, she began to feel worried for the child. As the boy pulled the child to safety,
her thoughts changed again. “He’s going to make it,” she called out loud, and began to feel relieved.
When the child was safely on the bank and appeared to be okay, the boy walked up to Katie and
handed back the jump rope, saying, “I’m sorry if I frightened you before, but I had to act quickly.
Thank you for the loan of the rope.” Thinking that it was nice of him to apologize and return the
rope, Katie felt grateful.
Back home, she told her mom the story of how the jump rope had helped save the child. She
told her father when he got home from work and even rang up her grandmother to tell her. As Katie
thought of the part her jump rope had played, she felt proud—and then she had another thought: It
wasn’t the rope that made me feel all those ways, it was the way I thought about the rope. And with that
thought, she felt even better.

STORY 57

FINDING EXCEPTIONS TO PROBLEMS

Therapeutic Characteristics

Problems Addressed

■ Global thinking

■ Negative thinking

■ Focusing solely on the problem

■ Not seeing the exceptions

Resources Developed

■ Thinking specifically

■ Looking at the positives

■ Seeking solutions

■ Finding the exceptions

CREATING THOUGHTS

Creating Helpful Thoughts 147