kids

When we’re young we think we can change the world.  We plan to join the Peace Corps, stop world hunger, end poverty, and write the Great American Novel.  We think that we have all the answers needed to exact change on our hurting world.

Maybe we don’t.  But maybe we do.

Every year our family spends a day out and about together just before Christmas.  This began as a way for us to serve in some sort of missional capacity, while also having some quality time together.  This tradition has become very meaningful for us – but it isn’t always easy to plan.

We live in a super small town, and some opportunities are rare.  We want to serve a meal at a shelter at some point, but that’s permanently scheduled here.  Usually I come across an opportunity while scouring the local news sites, but nothing popped out this year.  We always look for people who might be able to use a Blessing Bag, but we wanted to do more than that.

So … we bought a few boxes of candy canes and printed out “The Legend of the Candy Cane” on small tags.  We cut and taped the two together and filled a bag with candy telling about Jesus, and then we headed out.

Our first stop was to a small, liberal-minded town with a fun new park.  We hiked and had boat races in the river before heading to a locally-owned restaurant for lunch.  The kids handed out candy canes liberally and watched the wait staff beam with delight with each candy. 

When we left that town, we headed to nearby Chapel Hill, where we stopped in at the Carolina Inn to see the Gingerbread House competition.  As we left, the kids handed out candy to each of the valets and doormen – and one was so excited that he asked the kids to wait for a minute while he ran – literally – into this fancy hotel.  After a few minutes, he returned with cookies from the Inn’s snack shop.  Bubbling over with a warm chocolate cookie in hand, both kids wanted to know why this young man – perhaps a teenager or a student at UNC – would be so moved that he would run to purchase snacks for them.

This gave us all the opportunity to talk about people in service positions – those people whose work is invaluable but often goes unnoticed.  People like bus drivers, janitors, cashiers, etc.   They do important work, but how often do we take the time to thank them for it?  We discussed the importance of serving others, as Jesus said to do, and the importance of recognizing others doing so.

Later we ended up at Bass Pro Shop.  The kids love to visit the Winter Wonderland display – and this reindeer needed his photo taken!  Before leaving, each kid passed out candy canes to several of the cashiers and customer service representatives.  All of them immediately asked for the child’s name and reached out to shake his/her hand.  This might not seem like a big deal, and it’s not much of one for my gregarious Big Helper, but for my quieter Little Man, this is huge. 

See, to give any of these people a candy cane, we first had to approach them – out of the blue, with no prompting, and usually no interaction first.  The kids walked up to each person and offered the candy with a simple “Merry Christmas,” and it was always well received – but it was a ‘cold call,’ so to speak.  My Little Man was really scared to do this at first, but he gained confidence throughout the day, and by our last stop, he was eager to pass them out.

And the staff at Chick Fil-A was happy to receive them – so much that when the kids tried to trade in their toys for ice cream, it was up-sized to a much larger portion than the one usually given to the kids.  And the woman who was cleaning the lobby while we ate?  She talked up a storm from the time she accepted her candy cane until we walked out the door.  She smiled and chattered and cleaned, no longer the Invisible Woman.

Will our simple candy canes end world hunger or kick off the beginning of world peace?  No, but they did prompt a lot of smiles.  They caused people to pay forward these simple acts of kindness.  They made my kids search for people in need of a bit of kindness, and the excitement they received in return gave them the confidence to try again – and will make it easier to perform a random act of kindness later.  Since each tag told the symbolic story of the candy cane, which is all about the salvation offered by Jesus, dozens of people read this message, because the very first thing that each person did was to read the tag. 

Candy canes may not cause any cease fires, but they could change someone’s outlook, and thus, his life.  Passing out this candy certainly made a difference to our family – and who knows how it might affect our kids as they grow, or the candy recipients in the future?

How do you teach your kids to give?