Leslie Unleashes On Herself When Her Son Has to Remind Her About the Importance of Giving to Others

I pride myself on the kind hearts of my children. While raising them, I ALWAYS tried to instill a sense of empathy toward others. I am happy to say they are all very giving and nonjudgmental individuals. I really want them to have a ‘What would Jesus do?’ mentality. In our world today, it’s hard to teach that kind of love. But, that’s not going to stop me. And, it shouldn’t stop you either.

When I saw this video, I was outraged!! And YOU will be too. But, after we clench our fists in anger, grit our teeth and shake our head, we must stand back and remember to teach love.

The nerve of that man!! He sits there, in that wheelchair, proud of himself. It’s like he feels that because he is such a good actor, THAT makes it OK!! Not only is he stealing by taking money from kind-hearted people, under false pretenses, but he is likely going to be taking money AWAY from the people who need it. Ok……ok……breath………..ok…..I’m good.

Now, back to my point. I must begin with a story. Last Fall, while driving in downtown Evansville, ready to merge on to the Lloyd, my youngest son and I observed an overweight woman, in her mid thirties, holding a sign, asking for money for food. When I didn’t grab for my wallet or the change in the cup holder, my son asked, “Mom, aren’t you going to give her money?” I laughed out loud and said, “NO!” He then said, “Mom, why are laughing? She needs help!!” I then explained to him that if she needed money, she should get a job and stop sitting around eating all the time. I said. “Look at her! She obviously has PLENTY of food.” My son then taught me a lesson I will never forget.

He said, “Mom, I can’t believe you would say that!! I am ashamed of you!! She says she needs help so I’m going to help her.” And from the mouths of babes, HE explained to ME that if someone asks for help, you HAVE to help them. He told me you can’t judge whether or not they need help because you are not them. My beautiful sweet boy them told me to roll down the window so he could give her the change in my cup holder. With tears in my eyes, I did as he said.

As we drove away and left the woman behind us in the rear view mirror, I realized how wrong I was, that while teaching my children to give to those in need, I had become a hypocrite. I had lost my empathy towards others and had judged a woman who was only asking for help in the form of my spare change. I HATE the change in my cup holder! It annoys the crap out of me. But I was willing to guard it with my uncaring and insensitive opinions of a woman I didn’t even know. SHAME ON ME!! Even though the woman may have taken my spare change and used it along with the rest of her earnings to buy cigarettes, drugs, or whatever, that doesn’t matter. What matters is that in spite of my behavior, my son gave and will continue to give.

So, even though, we will run across thieves, just like the man in the video, who steals money and laughs about it. We must never stop giving to those who ask for help. And, more importantly, NEVER stop teaching our children to give.