Anyone Can Be Generous

"NBC Nightly News" carried the story of the retirement of an unusual volunteer at Pittsburg Children's Hospital. His name is Albert Lexie. Lexie shined shoes there two days a week, but there is a lot more to the story. Lexie had been shining the shoes since 1981. He only charged $5, but said anything more than that amount was given to a free care fund at the hospital for people who can't pay their bills. His first year, Albert donated $750. That rose to more than $11,000 in 2012. In all, he donated more than $200,000. Albert served in a humble way, using his particular gift, which reaped great rewards for others. On the day of his retirement, there were news cameras, applause and many tears.

- The Daily Nightly (December 18, 2013)

Brothers In Arms

Jim McNulty is a detective constable in Scotland.  He went online one day to report that a London officer had been killed in the line of duty and two others injured.  On reading this, comrades from other countries wondered why bulletproof vests hadn't worked.  McNulty explained that the government doesn't provide vests for police officers in Great Britain. 

Las Vegas Police Lt. Dennis Cobb immediately responded via email offering his spare vest.  Within days McNulty was deluged with messages from police all over United States and Canada offering their vests, which were due for replacement but still effective.  A few weeks later, an initial shipment of 30 vests was transported free of charge to London's Heathrow.  Since news of the program broke, thousands more vests have been sent to Britain.

McNulty said, "All the officers here are absolutely astounded at the lengths their fellow officers in the United States have gone to for them."

- Michele D. Kinnamon, CompuServe Magazine

There Is Something Waiting For Me

A self-made millionaire Eugene Lang greatly changed the lives of a sixth-grade class in East Harlem.  Mr. Lang had been asked to speak to a class of the fifty-nine sixth-graders.  What could he say to inspire these students, most of whom would drop out of school?  He wondered how he could get these predominantly black and Puerto Rican children even to look at him.

Scrapping his notes, he decided to speak to them from his heart.  "Stay in school," he admonished, "and I'll help pay the college tuition of every one of you."

At that moment the lives of those student changed.  For the first time they had hope.

One student said, "I had something to look forward to, something waiting for me.  It was a golden feeling."

Nearly ninety percent of that class went on to graduate from high school.

- Parade magazine

Kindness Instead Of Revenge

There was a sheep-raising farmer.  Next to him there was another farmer who was raising wheat, children, and large dogs.  The dogs were scaring the sheep.  The sheep farmer did not know what to do.  He could shoot the dogs or poison them, be nasty to his neighbor, or even take him to court.

He prayed about it...

As soon as some new lambs were born he gave each of his neighbor's children one of the lambs as a pet.  The children were thrilled.  But their father could no longer allow his dogs to run rampant as before.  He restrained them for the sake of the pet lambs.  The two farmers became friends.  Kindness won.

- submitted by Dennis Kamper, Parables, Etc. (July 1992)