A Kindness Lesson in Action at Dinner

--by Kim, posted Apr 26, 2006

I love to do the random things like pay for the person behind me in the fast food drive thru.... This week after church we decided to go out to eat with our kids in tow. Our family consists of 6 children, some adopted. We went to a local restaurant. We were seated next to a family of 4 children, and I noticed the young mother had a bandana on her head and appeared to have a hair loss issue, it immediatly touched my heart.

I told my husband I want to pay their bill. He looked around, I think he was looking for a lonely person in the corner, then I pointed to the family next to us. When he did a head count I thought he was going to have a heart attack. Our income is stretched as it was and here I am suggesting we pay for another bill. After finally getting the go ahead my husband asked if I had my smile cards with me...like DUH... of course I did!!! So we got our waitress explained what we wanted to do and sat back and watched.

The husband opened the bill wallet to find the smile card. He asked the waiter if it was a joke. Then he preceded to read the card aloud to his kids and they began talking about how incredible it was and what they were going to do to pay-it-forward. The waiter though seemed nervous, kept hanging around until we paid the bill...then he kept coming back asking why we did that, and how come...and on and on...it was very cool.

Then when it was done we told our kids, which was the same situation - lots of questions - who? where? It was a learning experience for several people and it is cool to see things like this in action.

8282 Reads

Posted by Kim
Apr 26, 2006
Comments (19)

Readers Comments

Brendan wrote: What a wonderful thing you and your family have done. And now you got all these people including the waiter thinking what they can do for someone else. Someday everyone will wake up and get it!

brandi wrote: that is soo awesome!

miranda wrote: that is what i call a selflessly generous gift!

Rachel Martinez wrote: My heart is so full of joy from reading all these stories, especially this one. I am a giver and it feels so good to give rather than to receive.

maddy wrote: you are such a wonderful person!!!! =D

iferlamb wrote: So wonderful!

Smiles.

LagunaLioness wrote: Lovely story. Will definitely keep that one in mind. I just received my first packet of smile cards! And i'm glad your husband didn't have a heart attack. :-)

fancye53 wrote: It is so refreshing to have connected with people who think like i do. To be so kind and generous is a selfless act which will eventually caught on and more people will be doing the same. This is a wonderful story.

Nadiath O. A wrote: Such a beautiful story. This is the second time i'm reading such an inspiring example as this one. I can't wait to put this into action myself! Thank you forsharing goodness :)

Maryjersey wrote: Thank you for doing this. I'm sure that every one of them will be paying it forward. Our world is getting a little kinder, one smile at a time.

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