April 29, 2016
Being a youth leader for the past 24 years often has me thinking about how we can all continue to make a difference in the lives of others. Especially helping our youth to see how they can make a difference. I feel blessed in so many ways and every day I am reminded just how blessed I am with my 7 grandchildren.
My oldest grandson Matthew is a very precocious 4 year old. He has become hooked on a craft using perler beads. I had them saved since his mom was a little girl. Matthew liked them so much I purchased him a container of 22,000 beads. He started out with a car template he had and made about 25 cars. Then he made hearts for all of his Aunts and Uncles for Valentines Day. He truly loves making shapes, rainbows, and now is even making Minnions. I have since ordered him another 22,000 beads but his mom has requested they stay at my house. :) He actually makes them all the time. He wakes at 6am and starts making beads. The patience he has for this craft is none like i have seen for a child his age.
Recently, he decided he wanted to give away the 75 items he had made to date. I talked about giving them to people in a nursing home and he asked me what that was. I explained who lived there and he said, "that is a perfect idea". He proceeded to tell me that we needed to glue magnets on all 75 of his little pieces of art so the people could hang them up. So, I ordered magnets and Matthew and I hot glued them all on. Magnets were not all he wanted. Matthew also let me know under no circumstances could we give the "old people" these items without wrapping paper and a beautiful bow. I said, "oh I don't think they would mind". Matthew responded, "of course they will, this is a present and we want it to look beautiful for them". Of course we wrapped them and put bows on. (Nana was schooled by a 4 year old, as I tried to cut corners). I have to say I was truly amazed at how well Matthew was at wrapping. The determination he put toward this project was nothing less than amazing.
Yesterday we put all of his effort and hard work into the hands of the residents at Elmhurst Extended Care. His little brother Jake (2 1/2) has also helped all along the way. Both of them walked through the halls and into the rooms of residents handing out their treasure. There were residents that accepted with tears in their eyes and thanked the boys, others just smiled and said thank you. The boys looked at them and said, "you are welcome have a nice day". Of course as a Nana I was so proud of how excited these two little boys were giving each person their gift. The real beauty was in the fact that neither Matthew or Jake saw any of the residents disabilities. They truly just handed out their gifts with a smile or maybe a touch and even hand shakes. They were the difference in the lives of those seniors. It made me realize we all need to look past the disabilities of others and greet them with a smile. We need to do better at honoring the elderly. The following scripture comes to mind for me when thinking of how we must see with a heart of love.
Matthew 18:3 "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
April 28th was national pay it forward day and this was a wonderful way to pay it forward. Bringing joy to the elderly. Thanking them for the contributions they have made. I challenge you to do something to make a difference. We all could take a page out of Matthew's book and bring a smile to someone's face.
Matthew working on his project
Delivering Love!
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