MILLION DOLLAR SMILE
Each year this organization of men came to the Children's Home Society
Orphanage.
All the boys and girls would get two dollars each. The men would take
us in groups of five to downtown Jacksonville, Florida, to do some
Christmas shopping.
I remember going with this one gentleman three years in a row. He
would take us shopping, then he would ask us if we wanted to go to the
movies. I remember watching him closely when we got to the theater. I
watched him as he pulled out his wallet to pay for our tickets. He looked
over at me and just smiled with his great big smile. During the movie he
bought us all the popcorn and candy that we wanted. I remember thinking
how wonderful it was that someone would spend their own money on someone
like us.
We all laughed at the funny movie and had a really good time. The man
would laugh really hard and then he would pat me on top of the head. Then
he would laugh really hard again and reach over and rustle my hair. I
would just look at him, and he would just keep smiling with his great big
wonderful smile.
That trip to the movies was the first time in my life that I ever felt
as if someone really cared about me. It was a wonderful feeling which I
have never forgotten, even to this day, decades later.
I don't know if that man felt sorry for me, but I do know this: If I
ever win the big lottery, that man will find out that he carried a
million-dollar smile.
This is why I believe it is so important that organizations and clubs,
such as the Shriners and Jaycees, continue to reach out and help the
children who are less fortunate. In my particular case, it was this one
man's personal act of kindness that will be remembered for years to come.
Just one little simple act of kindness.
It is these little-tiny acts that will insure that when some confused
child goes off the deep end one day, he or she will forever remember that
small glimmer of kindness that was shown to them by someone. That little
speck of hope, that little dim light of goodness that will forever be
stuck somewhere in the far reaches of their confused mind.
I thank you, kind Sir, for a memory which I now share with my children
and grandchildren fifty years later.
-Roger Dean Kiser, Sr.
Beautiful Pearls
Jenny was a bright-eyed, pretty five-year-old girl.
One day when she and her mother were checking out at the grocery store,
Jenny saw a plastic pearl necklace priced at $2.50. How she wanted that
necklace, and when she asked her mother if she would buy it for her, her
mother said, "Well, it is a pretty necklace, but it costs an awful lot of
money. I'll tell you what. I'll buy you the necklace, and when we get home
we can make up a list of chores that you can do to pay for the necklace.
And don't forget that for your birthday Grandma just might give you a
whole dollar bill, too. Okay?" Jenny agreed, and her mother bought the
pearl necklace for her.
Jenny worked on her chores very hard every day, and sure enough, her
grandma gave her a brand new dollar bill for her birthday. Soon Jenny had
paid off the pearls. How Jenny loved those pearls. She wore them
everywhere to kindergarten, bed and when she went out with her mother to
run errands.
The only time she didn't wear them was in the shower. Her mother had told
her that they would turn her neck green!
Now Jenny had a very loving daddy. When Jenny went to bed, he would get up
from his favorite chair every night and read Jenny her favorite story.
One night when he finished the story, he said, "Jenny, do you love me?"
"Oh yes, Daddy, you know I love you," the little girl said.
"Well, then, give me your pearls."
"Oh! Daddy, not my pearls!" Jenny said. "But you can have Rosy, my
favorite doll. Remember her? You gave her to me last year for my birthday.
And you can have her tea party outfit, too. Okay?"
"Oh no, darling, that's okay." Her father brushed her cheek with a kiss.
"Good night, little one."
A week later, her father once again asked Jenny after her story, "Do you
love me?"
"Oh yes, Daddy, you know I love you."
"Well, then, give me your pearls."
"Oh, Daddy, not my pearls! But you can have Ribbons, my toy horse. Do
you remember her? She's my favorite. Her hair is so soft, and you can play
with it and braid it and everything. You can have Ribbons if you want her,
"Daddy," the little girl said to her father.
"No, that's okay," her father said and brushed her cheek again with a
kiss. God bless you, little one. Sweet dreams."
Several days later, when Jenny's father came in to read her a story, Jenny
was sitting on her bed and her lip was trembling. " Here, Daddy," she
said, and held out her hand. She opened it and her beloved pearl necklace
was inside. She let it slip into her father's hand.
With one hand her father held the plastic pearls and the other he pulled
out of his pocket a blue velvet box. Inside of the box were real, genuine,
beautiful pearls. He had had them all along. He was waiting for Jenny to
give up the cheap stuff so he could give her the real thing.
So it is with GOD. He is waiting for us to give up the cheap things in our
lives so he can give us beautiful treasure.
Isn't God good?
This made me think about the things I hold on to and wonder what God wants
to give me in its place.
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