The day was Thankful Thursday. It’s a weekly tradition that my two little girls and I began years ago. Thursday has become our day to go out and make a positive contribution.
My girls shouted “McDonald’s, McDonald’s” as we drove along a busy Houston road. Suddenly I realized that almost every crossing I passed through was occupied by a panhandler（乞丐）. And then it hit me! All these panhandlers must be hungry, too. Perfect! After we ate, I ordered an additional fifteen lunches and we set out to deliver them. We would pull aside a panhandler, make a contribution, and tell him or her that we hoped things got better. Then we’d say, “Oh,by the way--- here’s lunch.”
We handed out final contribution to a small woman and then immediately headed back in the opposite direction for home.Unfortunately, the light caught us again and we were stopped at the same crossing where this small woman stood. I was embarrassed and didn’t know quite how to behave.
She made her way to our car, “No one has ever done anything like this for me before,” she said with amazement. Feeling uneasy, and wanting to move the conversation along, I asked, “So, when do you think you’ll eat your lunch?”
She just looked at me with her huge, tried brown eyes and said, “Oh honey, I’m not going to eat this lunch.” I was confused , but before I could say anything, she continued, “You see, I have a little girl and she just loves McDonald’s, but I don’t have money. But you know what---tonight she is going to have McDonald’s!”
I don’t know if the kids noticed the tears in my eyes. So many times I had questioned whether our acts of kindness were too small or insignificant to really effect change.Yet in that moment, I recognized the truth of Mother Teresa’s words: “We cannot do great things—only small things with great love.”
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