Pay It Forward Challenge

CAUTION:  Rant Below

Yesterday, while I was checking up on Facebook activity, I came across a Pay It Forward challenge.  Being intrigued by this challenge and the fact that I think this world has become more concerned with itself and less interested or concerned in those around us, I took the challenge.  It is very simple, five people respond to my call for extending the challenge further and they will receive a “gift” from me at some point during the year.  They won’t know when it is going to happen, it will be a surprise and hopefully make their day a little brighter.  To my surprise, I had five people respond within a few hours and as I checked their status, they each had five respond and hopefully it has grown from there.

I love this idea because I think our world has become very “me” motivated.  No one seems to be concerned with what they say or do to others.  No one seems to understand that words hurt, negative actions hurt, etc. or maybe they just don’t care.  I have there is an extreme lack of grace and class in this world lately.  No one seems to be able to say the word “Thank You”, let alone take five minutes to write it.  Go out to the mall and hold the door open for someone, nine times out of ten the person will just walk on through and act like that was your job, no thank you will be spoken.  When did we get to be “That” society?  When did we become “Those” people?  Are we now suffering the product of having dual income families, that children were raised by people other than parents and not taught manners?  No, I’m not disrespecting the dual income family.  Some times it take two incomes to make ends meet or to give your children things they really need.  Maybe the schools in your area aren’t very good and in order for your children to have a chance at a better life, you feel you need to send them to a private school – it requires more money hence dual income.    But some times the dual income is because we want more “things” like the bigger fancier car or the bigger fancier new house, we want to “keep up with the Jones’s” so to speak.

Well, I’m offering up my own challenge.  If you choose to accept this challenge, you won’t be tested on it.  You don’t need to keep track or report in on what you did.  No one will know whether you are involved in this or not.  Just you will know and that is how it should be.

Here’s the challenge:  Next time you are out and about, hold the door open for someone;  tell someone to “Have a nice day” – and mean it; say “Hello” to someone you don’t know; buy the person standing in line behind you a coffee or lunch or whatever; pick up the lunch check for a military person eating next to you in the restaurant; give someone a gift for no reason other than it might make their day a little brighter.

As I said, no one will know and this isn’t a contest nor should you use “bragging rights”.  Just do it because it might make a positive difference in someone’s day.   And hopefully, someone will do something for you to make your day brighter too!