The boy was four years old, yet he would remember one particular cloudy, overcast, gray day more than half a century later. It was Thanksgiving Day, and he and his mother were home alone.
Thinking back, the now senior citizen could not remember where his father and his older, yet youngest, half-brother were. He seemed to remember his half-brother got married earlier that year, in great part to get out of the house that became intolerable for him when his mother married. This, resulting in separation from his grandfather, a required change of schools, and a younger half-brother that took more of his mother’s attention from him, left the older sibling with a negative attitude that pursued him for the rest of his life.
Life perhaps was not all bad for the older half-brother. While his mother’s marriage resulted in massive changes in her eldest son’s life, this same son proudly chose the first name of his youngest sibling, the name of his best friend in high school.
The boy at age four was not aware that it was Thanksgiving. His mother approached this day as she did all others, doing her household and motherly duties with love and patience. Looking back, the boy remembered the dreary mood of the weather and a sense of loneliness, perhaps due to the absence of his father and half-brother.
A kind lady lived on the perpendicular street. Their houses were separated by boards that housed the lady’s coal pile. This lady went to church with the boy and his mother and was grieved at the thought of the two being alone on the holiday. She brought the boy and his mother a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. The boy, though only four years old, never forgot this kindness.
Fifty-five years later, the boy as a senior citizen had opportunity to invite two fine gentlemen to dine with him. The gentlemen were none other than the kind lady’s sons. When one of these men paid for the meal for all three, the now senior citizen was thrilled to have the opportunity to tell them about the kindness their mother rendered his mother and him all those many years ago. It humbled the now grown man that his elderly neighbor’s fine son was providing him a meal, just as his mother had more than half a century ago.
Sometimes it’s the smallest things that make the biggest impact. I’m sure Myrtle Carter would never dream that Ronnie Mincey would have been so impacted by the kind service provided to his mother and him. I’m sure she never foresaw a time that I would dine with her sons Coy and Carlos, and that Carlos would buy me a meal as a grown man. What an example of the fruits of a fine mother’s labor this gesture provides.
Not only during holiday seasons are there opportunities to render small acts of kindness. These are the things that make ordinary people great, not only on earth but in the eyes of the Kingdom.
To whom can you show kindness in a small way, both during the holiday seasons and throughout the year? You never know how far the effects of one small deed will reach.

ANSWER TO QUESTION OF THE WEEK # 38
How is common sense like deodorant? (ANSWER: The people who need it most never use it.)

QUESTION OF THE WEEK # 39
What was the administrative assistant doing when she knocked the atomic clock from the wall? (See next week’s article in historicunioncounty.com for the answer.)

QUESTIONS TO ASK YOUR CHILDREN
What would you say were the most important moments of your life so far?

What kind of a parent do you think you will be?
If you wanted to have kids, what would you want to name them?

WHEN YOU DIE . . .
God won't ask in what neighborhood you lived, He'll ask how you treated your neighbors.

It's Not What You Gather, But What You Scatter That Tells What Kind Of Life You Have.