We Just Have Each Other
Man, life can be so hard! We live in a time and age where communication is instantaneous. That can be a blessing, or a curse… depending on what news is being delivered. The media rarely tells us of the good stuff, because they think it doesn’t attract our interest. So, day after day we are bombarded with news of murder and mayhem. If we are not careful, we will become cold and callous…we will develop a jaded perspective and think everyone is out to get us. I refuse to live like that. My son, Michael, always gives me a hard time. He will say, “Dad, you are so naïve…you think everyone is nice.” I just smile, and say back, “Kindness is usually returned, and so is rudeness.”
I actively search for articles of people doing acts of kindness towards their fellow man. It’s my only hope. I refuse to give up on the fundamental goodness of the vast majority of us. While there are monsters roaming among us…the rest of us understand that we need each other.
Life is God’s teachable moment with us. Life is not about us acquiring THINGS. It’s is about acquiring friends, and neighbors, and family, and people you love, and people who love you. The true measure of a life is determined in how many broken hearts there are when one heart stops beating.
So, when I saw the following story, it brought a smile to my face; for this person beat back the darkness for a brief moment in another’s life. I hope it brings a smile to your face as well.
Kayla Lane, a waitress at the West Side Café in Fort Worth, Texas, was working her shift recently when she spied regular customers Shaun and Debbie Riddle walk into the restaurant. The previous time they were in, Shaun and Debbie had their newborn baby daughter, Glory, along with them.
Kayla inquired into the whereabouts of the child, only to be horrified when the couple told Kayla that their baby had died. Kayla, stunned and searching for words, finally said, “, ‘Oh my gosh, I am so sorry and I know you are hearing “sorry” so much that it’s just another word, but I really am terribly sorry.’
When the couple finished their meal, Kayla walked over to them and left a note on their bill saying the meal was free. The restaurant was paying for their meal. Kayla wouldn’t even allow them to leave a tip.
There are skeptics who would think the gesture was small in terms of dollars and cents…but it was priceless to Shaun and Debbie. When Debbie got home she posted the following on her Face Book, “We eat at West Side Café on Camp Bowie in Fort Worth quite a lot and last month sometime we took our new baby, Glory. Well, we just went there this afternoon and our waitress Kayla remembered us and asked where our baby was. Sadly, we had to tell her baby Glory passed away and is with God now. She felt so horrible for asking but she was so sweet,” she wrote. “When it was time for us to pay our bill, Kayla brings over our receipt. She didn’t even want us to tip her because she said the company took care of her tip as well. We hear so much negativity on the news and so that is why I felt led to share this story in hope that Kayla and this restaurant will get some good recognition.”
I am going to end this post with the same quote from Mother Teresa that I used to begin my post from yesterday,
"In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love."
Comments(3)