Thanks

Thanks for not judging the girl who got pregnant at sixteen, but treating her like a prize. Thank you for being kind to those who don’t think the way you do. Thank you for visiting nursing homes.

Thank you for tipping your waitress too much. Even though she accidentally messed up your order, you tipped her good. Real good.

You were with your family. The waitress brought you a meal you didn’t ask for. You ate it anyway. You tipped her two twenties.

And thanks for giving that man and his son a ride home. You found them in the Walmart parking lot with a dead battery. You tried to jumpstart the vehicle five times. It wouldn’t hold a charge. So you asked where he lived.

“About an hour away,” the man said.

You drove an hour. Both ways.

Thanks for the gift baskets you bought for Miss Donna. She was in the hospital after a heart attack. You visited her room by mistake—you meant to visit your niece after her appendectomy.

You noticed Miss Donna didn’t have any visitors. She had no get-well cards, no flowers.

Someone told me what you did.

You must have spent a fortune at the florist. They delivered three different baskets, the cards were signed with three different names. Clever.

That must’ve made her feel important. Then, you delivered a fourth basket by hand. You introduced yourself. You sat with her. You talked.

Thank you.

Thanks for letting the frantic mother use your cellphone when she couldn’t find her child. Her phone was dead, she was pure panic.

She borrowed your phone. She made a few calls. She ended up locating her son because of you.

Thanks for cutting your neighbor’s lawn after his back surgery. He’s old. For someone his age, surgery is a big deal.

Not only did you cut his lawn. You cleaned out his gutters. You went to the store to stock his fridge. You even bought him a stack of magazines. You didn’t have to do that.

Thanks for holding the door for the old woman at the courthouse.

Thanks for tossing a few bucks into the guitar case of the homeless man on Palafox Street.

Thanks for giving the man who got out of jail a job.

Thanks for using your phone to donate money to a child with cancer who you’ve never even met.

For volunteering to babysit the children of the single mother up the street.

For changing an elderly woman’s kitchen light bulb just because.

For taking a fourteen-year-old, whose father died last year, to compete in a fishing tournament.

Thank you for calling the number on the “Missing Dog” sign in your neighborhood. Thank you for adopting the bloodhound with an arthritic pelvis.

For waking early the after the day of your son’s funeral to make breakfast for his daughter.

Thank you for attending the visitation of someone you barely knew, simply to make the crowd bigger, so the widow could say, “You should’ve seen ALL the people who loved him.”

Thanks for not judging the girl who got pregnant at sixteen, but treating her like a prize. Thank you for being kind to those who don’t think the way you do. Thank you for visiting nursing homes.

Thank you for delivering food to my family’s porch after my father died, many years ago. Thanks for teaching me in the classroom and changing my life. Thank you for loving me when I didn’t know how to love myself. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

And whoever you are, wherever you are tonight…

You should’ve seen the look on the face of that waitress.

27 comments

  1. Theresa Clark - February 1, 2018 10:39 am

    I thank you. As always, amazing writing.

    Reply
  2. annie - February 1, 2018 11:08 am

    Thank you, Sean for helping me see more love.

    Reply
  3. Steven P Bailey - February 1, 2018 11:58 am

    Wonderful!!!

    Reply
  4. Connie - February 1, 2018 12:14 pm

    Thank you Sean. I say it every day I know, but thank you for blessing us all with your words and your big heart.

    Reply
  5. Sue Cronkite - February 1, 2018 12:28 pm

    Thanks for reminding us of the things people do who love their neighbors.

    Reply
  6. Jo Ann - February 1, 2018 12:47 pm

    Thank *you*, Sean, for greeting us every day with blessings. It’s so easy to forget the good things all around us & good, good people.

    Reply
  7. Randy - February 1, 2018 12:57 pm

    And thank you Sean.

    Reply
  8. janiesjottings - February 1, 2018 1:14 pm

    Thank you Sean for helping us remember on a daily basis how many good people are in the world.

    Reply
  9. Debbie Taylor - February 1, 2018 1:43 pm

    Thank you for your heart that’s so full of gratitude … your message reminds us to be humble, generous and loving, to everyone, just because.

    Reply
  10. Joan Campbell - February 1, 2018 1:55 pm

    “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ Matthew 25:40

    Reply
  11. Leslie in NC - February 1, 2018 2:30 pm

    An act of kindness done with love for another can, unbeknownst to you, change someone’s day…or even their life. Maybe that waitress was $40 short for paying her power bill. Thank you, Sean, for reminding us that a simple kindness is all it takes to put a smile on someone’s face and a smile in our heart.

    Reply
  12. Nix LaVerdi - February 1, 2018 3:21 pm

    I feel blessed to have your stories delivered to me. Beautiful, and thank you Sean.

    Reply
  13. sandysewwhatever - February 1, 2018 3:22 pm

    Thank you for bringing a big box of presents to a family with 6 kids and the dad is off work hurt. You adopted us and became Grammy and Grampy when ours were still back in the place we had moved from.
    Over 40 years later you are still in a special place in my heart like you are for many others you blessed.
    Enjoy the rewards for those many blessings where you are now up there!

    Reply
  14. Melanye Wrighton - February 1, 2018 4:26 pm

    Grateful. Stunned. Filled by your ♥️‘s Grace this morn.

    Reply
  15. Nancy S. Jones - February 1, 2018 4:31 pm

    WOW! Thank you Sean.

    Reply
  16. Janice Nichols - February 1, 2018 5:11 pm

    WOW WOW WOW is my highest rating. A friend gave me a coloring book which I am coloring each day as I am not driving now. It makes me happy. 1 of the TV guys said to a guest,”You are living your faith not talking your faith”. Be the change you want 2 see.

    Reply
  17. Pamela McEachern - February 1, 2018 5:12 pm

    Thank you Sean for being a beacon for good and a light for inspiration to being someone’s answered prayer. Thank You

    Peace and Love from Birmingham

    Reply
  18. Jack Quanstrum - February 1, 2018 5:40 pm

    Thank you for the post! Much Abliged!

    Reply
  19. Jan - February 1, 2018 6:08 pm

    Thank you, Sean, for opening our eyes and hearts to the often simple actions with such huge potential results.

    Reply
  20. Jack Darnell - February 1, 2018 6:28 pm

    Thanks
    Sean, I just forwarded that to some folk who need to read it!

    Reply
  21. Susan - February 1, 2018 9:02 pm

    This is just beautiful.

    Reply
  22. Jonathan Jones - February 2, 2018 12:44 am

    Reply
  23. Frannie Keller - February 2, 2018 1:16 am

    No, thank you for loving and believing in people.

    Reply
  24. Jody - February 3, 2018 5:25 am

    Thanks Sean. ❤️❤️

    Reply
  25. Becky Stewart - February 6, 2018 7:00 pm

    Thanks for the good, but ugly cry today. ❤️

    Reply
  26. S Beach - April 25, 2018 4:30 pm

    Thanks for people who still care for others and do kind things unnoticed by most people. … they do not go unnoticed by God…

    Reply
  27. James from Odenville - April 25, 2018 4:52 pm

    I especially love big tipping the waitresses. They deaerve the highest praise for such a thankless service they offer.

    Reply

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