In his profile on the Dallas Theological Seminary website, Dr. Howard Hendricks tells of his background. His profile is adapted from a Dallas Morning News article. (His bio is from January 2003). In his own words, Hendricks describes his childhood:

"I was born into a broken home," the 78-year-old man says. "My parents separated when I came along. I split the family."

Reared by his father's mother, Dr. Hendricks says that in elementary school he was a troublemaker, a hell raiser. Probably just acting out a lot of insecurities, he says looking back on his Philadelphia childhood. His fifth-grade teacher had predicted that five boys in class would end up in prison. He was supposed to be one of them. The teacher was right about three of them, Dr. Hendricks says. That teacher, Miss Simon, once tied him to his seat with a rope and taped his mouth shut.

When he introduced himself to his sixth-grade teacher, Miss Noe, she told him something that would change his life forever.

"She said, 'I've heard a lot about you, but I don't believe a word of it,' " he recalls.

She made him realize for the first time in his life that someone cared, he says. "People are always looking for someone to say, 'Hey, I believe in you.' "

What he says makes me think of this, Sometimes you learn to be better from the examples of other lives (they show you how NOT to be).