A talent that I don't have but wish I had is going the extra mile. It's not that I don't want to, but I never think about it.
For example, at a recent gathering, a woman was given the assignment of putting numbers under people's chairs for a game. Now, if it was me putting numbers under the chairs, I would've just ripped a sheet of paper into squares (I'd be too lazy to even find the scissors to cut them out), hand write the numbers on them, and then tape them to the chairs. Well, this woman bought these beautiful circle tags, calligraphied numbers on them, put a grommet in them and tied silk ribbons to them to attach to the bottom of the chairs.
OK, doing something like that NEVER occurs to me!!! Maybe that's a bad example because I really can't fathom spending that much time and money on something that's just going to be thrown away five minutes later, but I do appreciate the thought and beauty involved.
But here's the kind of extra mile that I truly strive for:
When I was a teenager, our youth group would go down to Mexico every Christmas and bring food, clothes, and gifts to a few families. We would raise money all year and collect things, wrap presents, and learn Christmas songs in Spanish.
You'd think that was enough, but one man in our group drove up to the mountains, filled his pick-up truck with snow and drove it all the way to Mexico so that the kids in this village could have a snowball fight at Christmas time.
Now that's going the extra mile -- or 100. I'm so grateful for people like that and the inspiration they are to me.
7 comments:
LOVE that story--it warms my heart to think someone would do that. And what a great expereince for you, too!
I know I'm a few days late in commenting, but I just have to say I'm with you. I love when I see kind acts of service, but I'm at a loss for what I can do. I seem to always think of it after the fact. I wish I could be more creative in helping others. I even started praying that I would know what Heavenly Father wanted me to say and do that day, in hopes of more inspiration.
CW -- yeah, that was awesome. That was back in the day when you could take the YW out of the country and nobody thought anything of it.
MONICA B. -- I'm always late with my comments, too (sometimes months late).
Praying for inspiration -- I'll have to try that. Thanks for the suggestion! Of course, then I'll have to act on it and I'm not too good at that, either.
I am loving your month of gratitude posts.
GEO -- yeah, it's been fun writing them. It's my own little Gratitude Journal without all the Oprah-ness.
One of my friends did that, but instead of driving it down to Mexico he brought the snow to the school parking lot and had a snowball fight before school started and ended up breaking someones window! Needless to say, Mountain View has the best baseball pitcher in the state!
THOMAS -- that's awesome! I could just imagine the conversation between the homeowner and their insurance agent. "Your window got broken by a what? And you live where?" Too funny.
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