These two pay-it-forward stories will warm your heart.
Paying it forward is the act of doing a deed out of the kindness of your own heart for someone else. The hope is that when you pay it forward to someone, they in turn will pay it forward to someone else.
For example, imagine going to McDonald’s to get dinner for you, your spouse, and your children. You pull up to the drive-thru window and the cashier informs you that the person in front of you bought your dinner. In this situation, you can save the money you did not spend for another day or you can pay it forward, as well, by offering to pay for the meal of the person behind you.
Paying it forward in response to someone else paying it forward to you is the goal, but it is not something you have to do immediately or at all. Furthermore, paying it forward does not always mean opening your wallet. If you want to pay it forward but are not sure how to make it happen, check out these heartwarming stories where someone else paid it forward.
One Publix employee started a chain of paying for someone else’s groceries.
This story, posted on the Love What Matters Facebook page, is just one example of how you can pay it forward.
“Today while I was getting groceries, this Publix employee in Fairburn, GA (by the name of Sierra) pulled out her own debit card and paid for a customer’s groceries who didn’t have enough money. So, today at Wal-Mart, I decided to pay for the customer’s groceries behind me. (This is what Thanksgiving is all about.) Please share and give her recognition; she didn’t have to help out, but without hesitation, she went in her purse and paid the bill. That simple gesture easily changed someone’s life. Many people were starving this Thanksgiving… We need more people like Sierra.”
Paying it forward is an act anyone can perform, as the viral story of an 8-year-old boy named Myles Eckert taught many.
According to A Plus, this 8-year-old did something most children and adults would not do after finding a $20 bill in the parking lot. Most people in this situation would simply keep the bill and eventually spend it on something. Myles, however, decided to give the $20 bill to another customer – a soldier named Lt. Col. Frank Dailey. The 8-year-old included a note with the bill to explain why he gave the soldier the money he found in the parking lot in the first place.
“Dear Soldier — my dad was a soldier. He’s in heaven now. I found this 20 dollars in the parking lot when we got here. We like to pay it forward in my family. It’s your lucky day! Thank you for your service. Myles Eckert, a gold star kid.”
The boy’s story went viral, and he appeared on “Ellen” during an episode with former President George W. Bush. A year after the decision to give the $20 bill to the solider, this boy’s family started a nonprofit organizer named the Power of 20. The organization continued what the young boy started that day in the parking lot.
The comments section of the Facebook post on Love What Matter’s page contains tons of comments from people who share similar stories of kindness.
Within the stories, some discussed how they once opened their wallets to pay for someone in need in the store. Others told stories of how someone once opened their wallets to help them instead. The comments are a beautiful combination of the acts of giving and receiving kindness.
Have you ever been at the giving or receiving end of a paying-it-forward situation?
https://www.facebook.com/lovewhatreallymatters/posts/1753130701375987:0
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
Sources: A Plus, Love What Matters
