Summary
The value you put on a person greatly affects the way they value themselves. The story of Johnny Lingo shows how you can bring out the best or the worst in a person.

Every once in a while my mister will call me his 8 cow wife. At first I was highly insulted as I was greatly pregnant at the time, and mentioning anything bigger than a tea cup would instantly send me into tears. So he told me the following story.

Johnny Lingo lived on the island of Kiniwata in the Pacific.

Johnny Lingo was known throughout the islands for his skills, intelligence, and savvy. He was also known as the man who paid 8 cows for his bride.

A dowry of two or three cows would net a fair wife and four or five cows would net a very nice wife. So by all accounts a wife worth 8 cows was unheard of.

"Wow, I said, "she must have had a beauty that takes your breath away!"

"She wasn't ugly, he conceded with a little smile, " but calling her plain would definitely be a compliment. Sam Karoo, her father, was afraid he wouldn't be able to marry her off. Instead of being stuck with her, he got eight cows for her. This price has never been paid before."

"Yet, you called Johnny's wife plain? "

"I said it would be a compliment to call her plain. She was skinny and she walked with her shoulders hunched and her head ducked. She was scared of her own shadow."

"Well," I said, "I guess there's just no accounting for love."

"I guess not," he said. All of the cousins urged Sam to ask for three cows and hold out for two until he was sure Johnny would pay only one. To their surprise Johnny came to Sam Karoo and said, "Father of Sarita, I offer eight cows for your daughter "

Naturally her father accepted. Soon the whole island and all the nearby islands heard the story that Johnny Lingo had paid Sarita's father 8 cows for her hand in marriage.

A funny thing happened to Sarita after she married Johnny. She began to get better looking. She had a lift to her shoulder, a tilt to her chin, and a sparkle in her eyes that spelled self-confidence and pride. Not an arrogant and haughty pride, but a confident inner beauty that radiated in her every movement. Johnny knew a secret. "Think about how it must make a girl feel to know her husband paid a very low dowry for her? It must be insulting to her to know he places such little value on her. Think about how she must feel when the other women boast about the high prices their husbands paid for them. It must be embarrassing for her. I would not let this happen to my Sarita."

"So, he paid eight cows just to make his wife happy?"

"Well, of course he wanted Sarita to be happy, but there's more to it than that. Many things can change a woman. There are things that happen on the inside and things that happen on the outside. However, the thing that matters most is how she views herself. In Kiniwata, Sarita believed she was worth nothing. As a result, that's the value she projected. Now, she knew she was worth more than any other woman on the islands. "

What is the value of a person? Normally we believe what others tell us about ourselves. How lovely to have someone believe that you are extraordinary.