Pay it Forward This Christmas Season

In the movie, Pay It Forward, a young boy developed a system of multiplying, exponentially, random acts of kindness for a Social Studies assignment. If you haven't seen the movie, I highly recommend watching it with your family and friends. The premise was the young boy would do a random act of kindness for three people. Each of those three people would then do a random act of kindness for three more people, and so on. Pay it forward, what a wonderful way to celebrate Christmas this year. Here are afew random acts of kindness that you can do for the elderly this Christmas Season.

Contact your local Meals-on-Wheels program and sign up to donate or deliver Christmas gifts to the elderly and shut-ins. I did this last year and it was extremely rewarding. One elderly lady, crippled with arthritis, asked if I would open her gift for her. As I was opening her gift, she began to recite a poem she had written for her younger sister. This poem told the story of a young girl doing all she could to rid herself of a baby sister and how, older, she wants only to hold her sister's hand. As I left her home, I realized, a gift I delivered turned into a gift I received. I called my brother onmy way home and told him I loved him.

Mention to your elderly or disabled neighbor that, if they will allow it, you would like to bring their morning newspaper to their door each morning during these cold winter months. If they don't already have a small table next to their front door, build or buy one for them. It's so much easier for the elderly to bend over just a bit to get the paper from a small table rather than having to bend all the way down to floor level. They will experience your gift and be thankful every morning when they don't have to go out into the weather or miss their morning paper because it's just too cold for them to go out.