Every Sunday when we sit down for our family dinner we have a tradition where we go around the dinner table and as we are eating each person in the family shares with the rest of us what they learned that day or week. We have done this since the time my children were little and over the years it has been one of the most impactful traditions on our family. We learn from each other, we talk to each other, we listen to each other, and we grow from what each other is learning. It is a tradition I wish we had time to do every night of the week, but we never miss doing it on Sunday. It’s a tradition I think every family should try at their own dinner table.

Today at dinner my husband shared a message on Helping Others, and I loved the message so much I wanted to share it with all of you today too. Sorry I can’t feed you all a Sunday dinner while you read it 🙂

Recently a social experiment was conducted titled “The Freezing Homeless Child”. A YouTube channel ockTV went onto the streets of New York to see how people would react if they saw a little boy disguised as a homeless person. For two hours this little boy stood without a coat in the freezing cold begging for food and money as hundreds of people flooded past him. Literally for two full hours not a single person stopped to help this boy. They didn’t even try to talk to him.

[Before I tell the rest of what happens I want to give a spoiler alert  – if you want to watch the entire video before you keep reading the rest of the blog you can click and watch it at the bottom of today’s post first before reading on]

Finally after two hours a man comes up to the boy who is now wrapped in a trash bag to keep himself warm lying on the street. This man sits next to him and asks how he is and takes off his own coat to place it on the little boy. He then asks if the boy is hungry and give him what little money he has in his own pocket. Next he leans down and hugs the little boy. He tells the little boy not to lose hope because he is a homeless person himself but he wants the little boy to know there is still hope for him. The only person, out of the hundreds and hundreds of people that walked by this freezing little boy on the street, that stopped to offer help was a homeless man…

“If you wait until you can do everything for everybody, instead of something for somebody, you’ll end up not doing nothing for nobody.” ~ Malcom Bane

What a wakeup call this video is for all of us. Every single one of us has the capacity to make a difference in other people’s lives every single day. Even if we just do the smallest acts of service for others we can make a huge difference. And most important, we should never see someone in need and not try to help in some way – even if it is just to let them know we care, or to give a hug, or to share words of hope, everything makes a difference…everything…

What a great message to start the week of with! Thanks to my honey for sharing it!  (you can watch the video below if you’d like)

~Amy