Acts of kindness and service are dear to me and my family. Since I live in a small college town where most of the students moved here from another state or even country to attend school, I’ve had the opportunity to be a substitute mom for a few moments for some of these random students. Sometimes I’ve been contacted by their parents or the parents’ friends to help and sometimes a spontaneous moment is presented to me to help. With each case it’s a blessing for us as well and never done with any expectation of acknowledgement or reward. (Well - - rarely . . . I’m sure my kids have had a few “natural man” times in hopes of a token of a treat. We are truly hard-core sugar lovers.)  

Today brought two separate unexpected moments of awareness on our part to serve and an extra bonus.

​The first came when my oldest son, Ryan Spencer, and I were running errands in our family suburban. We just pulled into our banking parking lot to get some belated birthday cash to add to cards we just bought. He chose to stay in the vehicle with the windows unrolled and I got out to go in. That’s when the two bicyclists and their baby carriage got my attention. It was a young couple and the husband looked like he was making some kind repairs on it. I continued to go in and do my stuff but had the thought come to me that if they were still out there when I was done I should offer help to drive them with their bikes. Sure enough - they were still working on the bike. They had moved out of the small parking lot area but were just at the end of the parking lot near the sidewalk. They assured they didn’t need a ride but if I had tools it’d help them get on their way faster. I told them that I just might as I remembered we had a roadside assistance kit in the back so we all went over to my suburban. I climbed in the back and woohoo we had tools to fix their problem.

​When we got home I discovered an unexpected package in our mailbox. Upon opening it I discovered a thank you note and a small package of double stuff white fudge covered Oreos! The card was from an out of town family friend who asked us earlier in the month if we could help get their daughter some bottled water. The parents forgot to get some while dropping off their student who wouldn’t be left with a vehicle.  It wasn’t a big deal for us but for the student she was extremely happy. My kids will be happy to have this surprise treat for Sunday night dessert when we all get together. - - - so to the Burrs; thank you too.

​Our second act of service came to my husband when he was walking to his truck after work. He noticed a gentleman whose car won’t start. The gentleman had jumper cables but they observed that our jumper cables were newer and higher quality. (In the past from some of our misfortunes we learned that the quality of the cables matter.) As I understand, the gentleman both thanked him for helping and apologized for being willing to stay later than planned in his same breath.

​It was fun to help someone and it made it even better to discover when my husband came home that we both without any plan saw and helped someone in need today.

This slang word  came to my mind, when I watched this news video, because of the positive attitude and responses of a young gentleman's dedication, hard work, excitement, and even luck - that during the glimpse of his experience as part of a basketball team HE WAS NOT AN UNDERDOG. When I was in high school I didn't experience or witness someone be treated nice or cheered on despite or because they were more disadvantaged than others. My own bubble and personal thoughts at times were:  I'm on the outside or I'm slow, or I'm not this or that; but not as much  as (fill in the blank). I thought about me and what I needed to know or do so I won't be viewed or thought of as dumb, unacceptably weird, or embarrassing. I omit that I was more typical of a teenager, thinking more about myself then others, than I realized. And I believe that others can relate a little to my reveal of normalcy and that's why this video just makes everyone feel good. It's nice and refreshing and even exciting to see and hear about people who are nice, that build up, and cheer for the underdog instead of ignoring them or putting them down. It's good to let go of our pride, selfishness, simpleminded thoughts and actions so we can cheer on the underdog.

https://www.facebook.com/colinwayneofficial/videos/706232776143362/