Hillbilly77
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- Mar 11, 2012
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I'm telling this story to hopefully be inspirational.
My point of telling this story is to show that no matter how small or insignificant a gesture or deed, it is still worth doing. You may just inspire the next person to do the next good deed, and maybe start a chain reaction of good.
With all of the things that divide us, the things that bring us together don't get much airtime.
A few years ago, 2 days before Christmas, Mrs. Hillbilly was on the phone with a friend of hers.
Her friend was talking about a local family that we all knew (small town, kids in school together, etc.). She told Mrs. Hillbilly that the family had fallen on hard times, with the breadwinner dad being laid off just before Christmas. This family has 2 proud, hard working parents and sweet, well behaved kids. They are all good people.
Things are tough for many families around here, living paycheck to paycheck, struggling just to get by. With the loss of a job, a family can get financially devastated pretty fast.
That being said, they were having a hard enough time just paying bills and keeping food on the table. Groceries and bills made it so they had no money left to buy any presents for the kids - all the kids were still at Santa Claus age.
The thought of these young kids not getting a Christmas from Santa was heartbreaking. I looked at our own tight finances and I figured up that we could spare about $100 and still get by ok until payday. I told Mrs. Hillbilly, "Go take $100 out and do what you can to get those kids some gifts. We'll wrap them and deliver them to the family for Christmas."
Mrs H. was so excited that she called up her friend and told her the news and asked her to come shopping with her. When her friend's husband heard about it, that inspired him to tell his wife, "I think we can spare $100, too. Go get those kids some presents."
So the next day (that day being Christmas Eve), Mrs Hillbilly and her friend set out to the store on a mission to stretch $200 as far as possible.
When they came back, they had toys, candy, stocking stuffers, etc. It's amazing how far two frugal women on a mission can stretch 200 bucks! They had bag after bag of goodies for those kids. They wrapped every present and Mrs. H's friend called the mom, telling her what we had done.
At first the mom choked up and tried to refuse, saying they didn't want to feel like they were taking a handout. They told her it was nothing of the sort. We all know how hard they work and bad luck can happen to anybody. Tearfully, she accepted.
We dropped the bags of wrapped presents off that night, after their kids had gone too bed.
I helped carry everything to the front door. There were thanks, hugs, and tears. The dad looked on in disbelief. The mom was in awe. To them it was a true Christmas miracle.
The women seemed like they needed a minute to talk among themselves, so I bade them a Merry Christmas and good night and went and sat out in my truck.
Mrs. Hillbilly came out a few minutes later, still with tears in her eyes. We drove home to our own Christmas Eve.
I used to dislike Christmas - I especially couldn't stand Christmas music. After having kids, I was able to tolerate Christmas.
Something happened to me that night. The feeling I felt as I drove home was the first time that I can remember feeling the true Christmas Spirit.
I drove home on Cloud 9.
Since then I have come to enjoy Christmas, music and all.
So, the moral of this story is to go do something nice for somebody - no matter how big or small the gesture.
You just may inspire the next person to follow suit, and you will definitely reap the benefits yourself.
Merry Christmas to all and may God bless you and yours!
My point of telling this story is to show that no matter how small or insignificant a gesture or deed, it is still worth doing. You may just inspire the next person to do the next good deed, and maybe start a chain reaction of good.
With all of the things that divide us, the things that bring us together don't get much airtime.
A few years ago, 2 days before Christmas, Mrs. Hillbilly was on the phone with a friend of hers.
Her friend was talking about a local family that we all knew (small town, kids in school together, etc.). She told Mrs. Hillbilly that the family had fallen on hard times, with the breadwinner dad being laid off just before Christmas. This family has 2 proud, hard working parents and sweet, well behaved kids. They are all good people.
Things are tough for many families around here, living paycheck to paycheck, struggling just to get by. With the loss of a job, a family can get financially devastated pretty fast.
That being said, they were having a hard enough time just paying bills and keeping food on the table. Groceries and bills made it so they had no money left to buy any presents for the kids - all the kids were still at Santa Claus age.
The thought of these young kids not getting a Christmas from Santa was heartbreaking. I looked at our own tight finances and I figured up that we could spare about $100 and still get by ok until payday. I told Mrs. Hillbilly, "Go take $100 out and do what you can to get those kids some gifts. We'll wrap them and deliver them to the family for Christmas."
Mrs H. was so excited that she called up her friend and told her the news and asked her to come shopping with her. When her friend's husband heard about it, that inspired him to tell his wife, "I think we can spare $100, too. Go get those kids some presents."
So the next day (that day being Christmas Eve), Mrs Hillbilly and her friend set out to the store on a mission to stretch $200 as far as possible.
When they came back, they had toys, candy, stocking stuffers, etc. It's amazing how far two frugal women on a mission can stretch 200 bucks! They had bag after bag of goodies for those kids. They wrapped every present and Mrs. H's friend called the mom, telling her what we had done.
At first the mom choked up and tried to refuse, saying they didn't want to feel like they were taking a handout. They told her it was nothing of the sort. We all know how hard they work and bad luck can happen to anybody. Tearfully, she accepted.
We dropped the bags of wrapped presents off that night, after their kids had gone too bed.
I helped carry everything to the front door. There were thanks, hugs, and tears. The dad looked on in disbelief. The mom was in awe. To them it was a true Christmas miracle.
The women seemed like they needed a minute to talk among themselves, so I bade them a Merry Christmas and good night and went and sat out in my truck.
Mrs. Hillbilly came out a few minutes later, still with tears in her eyes. We drove home to our own Christmas Eve.
I used to dislike Christmas - I especially couldn't stand Christmas music. After having kids, I was able to tolerate Christmas.
Something happened to me that night. The feeling I felt as I drove home was the first time that I can remember feeling the true Christmas Spirit.
I drove home on Cloud 9.
Since then I have come to enjoy Christmas, music and all.
So, the moral of this story is to go do something nice for somebody - no matter how big or small the gesture.
You just may inspire the next person to follow suit, and you will definitely reap the benefits yourself.
Merry Christmas to all and may God bless you and yours!
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