As parents we live for those moments that stop us in our tracks. The moments that take our breath away, make our heart swell, our eyes water and that we beam with pride that in some way we have been a part of another person who makes this world a better place because they are in it. Last week I sat in our high school auditorium with 322 sets of parents who all experienced that moment.
We were all there to celebrate our son’s Senior service projects. After Christmas break, every member of the senior class spends three weeks working full-time with a partnered non-profit. My oldest son, who has already spent over 700 hours in Watts with inner-city children could not possibly fathom what he would get out of this experience, as he already felt that he knew what it was like to serve.
He was wrong. When he was assigned to work with mentally handicapped children and adults, he had no idea what to do. Three days a week he worked with the children on their play yard, in class, fed them blended food with straws and loved it. He found joy and smiles with the kids and a true appreciation for his health and new understanding that joy can be found with the simplest kindness.
However, the other two days he was with mentally handicapped adults who were simply left in a room with no activities, no inter-action, nothing. He and his friends decided they needed to make this experience fun for their “clients” as they were called. So they broke out the karaoke machine and began to sing (which by the way is not his gift). Yet, bad voice and all, his clients loved it! The more these 18-year-old boys sang, the more smiles and joy they gave and received.
So as we all sat in the auditorium hearing a few of these stories from our sons, each of us had that moment of incredible pride at the amazing young men, we had raised. While every boy’s story was different, every message was the same. The more you give, the more you get and a smile goes a long way in making someone’s day better.
Charity Matters.
