Restoring Hope in Mankind

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, think about these things.  Philippians 4:8

Times are hard.  Bad news on every corner.  There's always something in the news that makes you say (or think): "Our world is going to hell in a handbasket."  It's so easy to get cynical.  But every so often something happens that makes you smile and restores your hope in mankind.  Sunday afternoon after church we had just finished up with lunch.  We were sitting around relaxing when there were some abrupt, loud knocks on the front door.  What in the world?

No one ever comes to our front door.  Most family and friends come through our side door or back door.  Tricia went to answer it.  I could hear her talking to someone.  She came into the room I was in and said, "Oh, Kyle, you've got to come see this."  I followed her to the foyer and looked out the window.

Two young neighborhood boys had come over, laid their bicycles down in the yard, walked up the sidewalk onto the front porch, and knocked on the door and asked if they could mow our yard or if there were any odd jobs they could do.  You see, they told us they were trying to earn money to buy Christmas gifts for their family.  It melted our hearts.  I told Tricia there's no way I was putting those boys on our lawn mower, but we could figure out something for them to do to earn a little money.

Tricia went and got brooms for them and had them sweeping off the sidewalks all around the house.  These little guys were resourceful and diligent.  They worked hard!  Look at 'em go!

We gathered some money to give them when they were done and Benjamin even kicked in some money for the budding entrepreneurs as well.

When the boys were finished, I walked outside to settle up with the workers.  I asked them their names and gave them a firm handshake.  Then I thanked them and handed them some cash.  I told them that I was proud of them.  I communicated that they were setting themselves apart from the crowd by having good work ethic and not waiting for someone to give them something, but to go work for it.  I let them know that with that type of attitude, they would go far in life and be successful.  They smiled at me and told me thank you and pedaled off down the road.  I watched them ride off and smiled, feeling like I was looking at a Norman Rockwell painting.  Those two little dudes made our day!