I had been talking on the phone to my four year old granddaughter who lives over 1000 miles away.
I said goodbye and that I would talk to her again and she said, "Wait! I just have one more thing to say. I love you!"
What a sweet way to end! The echo of those words lasted a long time in my mind and heart. They still move me.
I am not proud to admit, but I thought of so many stressful, hurried, angry times that that is the last thing I ever would have said to my loved ones. And those times never did feel like a sweet ending.
Do we realize the impact of our words?
"Wait! I just have one more thing to say. I love you!"
She set an example that I can learn from!
"Whenever I held my newborn baby in my arms, I used to think that what I said and did to him could have an influence not only on him but on all whom he met, not only for a day or a month or a year, but for all eternity - a very challenging and exciting thought for a mother." ~Rose Kennedy
After I got divorced as with many people, I financially struggled.
One day as I was robotically going through the bills and advertisements that filled my homemade mailbox I came across a small hand addressed envelope with no return address.
Inside was a twenty dollar bill and nothing else.
Every month for over a year maybe close to two, I would receive this "letter" written in different handwriting each time.
I was curious as to who was sending it and anxious to thank whomever brightened my day and was making my life a little easier.
When your means are meager, twenty dollars can pay a utility bill, buy food for two weeks, fill a gas tank with enough to get you through the week or buy a birthday gift for one of your children. I am not sure if the sender realized any of this but oh, how I wanted to tell them!
It would be years until I would find out who had so immensely blessed my family's lives.
It was an elderly man who went to church with me and whom I had known for years while I was married. He had watched me grow spiritually over the years and then witness my struggle as I would fall apart emotionally after my divorce.
After he became ill and only had a short time of life left, his wife shared his story with me.
Being a veteran of the Navy and combat and a survivor of the depression all he knew how to do was to work hard.
He had taken a part-time job at a copy store weeding the properties' yard. This was a challenge for him because you see, he was legally blind. He used a cane to maneuver his way around. How he did it I don't know.
He was paid twenty dollars and each month he sent that to me.
He would ask different people to address the envelope so that I could never quite figure out who it was.
The money was touching to me but when I heard the story and all the sacrifice it took to get that to me each month, I cherished it even more.
I was never able to thank him personally because that was one of the conditions of being told.
But I offered thanks in prayers. And I'm hoping that maybe in sharing it, it will inspire others (including myself!) to consider a small yet selfless act.
He taught me that giving does not have to be such a generous contribution that it makes the "platinum club".
What matters is that we do something .
What matters is how we give.
And that we give.
Something of ourselves to those who could use a hand.
He taught me that it is hard to find an excuse that would be excuse enough.
He had every reason to say it was too difficult.
He taught me that where there is a will there is a way.
He taught me that charity is the greatest gift of all.
"But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him." Moroni 7:47
The four year old boy I was sitting next to at rest time asked me this, "Do arms have wings?" as he was flopping the skin back and forth on my underarms.
I told him it was time to rest his voice.
What do you think I should have said?
"Some older models do. Now I am going to quit talking and rest my wings."
