Thanksgiving is upon us. For the past two weeks, I’ve watched as Facebook friends each day list what they give thanks for. This week I became thankful for a youthful friend who has a giving heart. I wonder how many other thirteen-year-olds like her exist.
While interviewing her for an article I’m currently writing, I was given the candy image in the picture. The “turkey” consists of a wrapped sucker on a stick attached to a chocolate kiss in foil, two eyes, and a maple leaf for a tail—a Tootsie Turkey. The young woman and her siblings made a bunch of these to distribute at nursing homes in honor of the holiday. The verse reads: Philippians 1:3 “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you.”
Statistics tell us many elderly residing in care facilities never receive a visitor, let alone meet a caring teen bearing gifts. Imagine how blessed some senior will be when he or she receives one of these cute gifts from the hands of a loving young person they don’t know. That young woman blessed me with her giving heart.
Who will you bless during this season of thanks? What unselfish act will you perform? Does some person need your gentle touch, a helping hand, a card remembering them? However you feel led to show appreciation for another, do it. Make this Thanksgiving brighter for someone close to you.
And if you are the person who needs someone to care, think of this young woman and her candy turkey, and know she would visit you if she could. Let her warmth warm you.
Above all, give thanks.