Four Quarters

Now that I have a son I'm thinking very practically about how to teach him about giving, serving, about the meaning of Christmas and about love. He's only 9 months old but I know I need to start now, not put if off, not wait until "he'll get it." Around this time of year you hear alot about random acts of kindness. About people buying other people's coffee for them in the drive thru. You don't know your coffee has been paid for until you pull up to the window and the clerk says, "that person just bought your drink." I haven't personally experienced one of these instances but you hear about them. Ever since I saw that lady running a Starbucks coffee up the hill to that beggar man I've been thinking regularly about what I might do, what random act of kindness might I bless someone with?

I'll tell you something, the littlest things in the world can be a blessing to someone. A smile, a door being held open, a tiny bit of extra effort assisting someone. Today I witnessed yet another random act of kindness, like the lady with the coffee, however small it may have been.

I was walking into work, into the supermarket as I passed by the quarter machines, the ones with the little toys, stickers, candies. There was a piece of notebook paper taped to the top of one. In blue ink it read something along the lines of, "random act of kindness: these quarters are for you to use as you wish. have fun. left here by a 3 year old boy." Oh my gosh, seeing it in person, not just on pinterest was... my entire day was impacted. I spent all morning feeling goosebumps, feeling overwhelmed by the picture in my head of a three year old boy and his mother purposefully going out of their way to shed a little light in this world. I can not even tell you how many people would have passed by those machines this morning and possibly, if they'd been looking, noticed that note and those quarters just as I had. Possibly hundreds of people felt that same warm glow that I'd felt because of one little boy and four little quarters. Sure someone, possibly several someone's most likely got a trinket from the quarter machines and if they were any thing like I was as a child that was the high light of their week. My mom never let us get stuff out of those machines. But literally hundreds of people may have been impacted by that random act of kindness. There were still 3 quarters there when I left 2 hours later.

Anyway, after my last post I couldn't resist sharing this one with you. What an awesome thing it is when we take a little time to try and be kind to someone. And it really doesn't need to cost alot. Awesome!

Just in case you weren't sure what I was talking about