Every Little Bit

I often hear people complain about the poor, the homeless and the unemployed. "Why don't they get a job? Why don't they earn their keep? Why did they have so many children if they couldn't afford them?" What they don't realize is that many of "those people" were once like them, with full time jobs, a car and a home. They don't realize that they are only a few paychecks away from the same fate. It's amazing how fast one can go from eating steak and potatoes to skipping meals so that their children can eat. They can't see that thy are only one lay-off, one stock market crash, one down-sizing, one family tragedy away from a life of poverty, desperation and despair.

There are the few exceptions. The ones that are lazy, unmotivated and arrogant with the idea that everyone else owes them something. They use the system to get as much as they can because they feel entitled. Those that don't understand why they should work when they can sap churches, charities and the government of precious resources to get what they want without putting forth any personal effort. However, for every one person like that, there are a dozen more in real, desperate need of assistance.

There are entire families that worked their whole lives tending farms and ranches just to have them ripped out from under them when falling crop and livestock prices made it impossible to pay their taxes. What about the entire communities destroyed by plant shutdowns when their jobs were given to cheaper labor in other countries? Or the parents suddenly made the sole caretaker of the household because their spouse has fallen victim to a debilitating illness or injury, and their insurance wouldn't pay for the medical expenses? Or the mothers who must now scramble to scratch out a living with an incomplete education and no job experience because their husbands died unexpectedly? Or the thousands of workers that have been laid-off because the company they've been working their fingers to the bone for is trying not to go under in this sad economy? The list goes on and on and on.

All of those people went from eating dinner at 6 o'clock every night, to trying to figure out how to scrape together enough change to buy their children some ramen. They went from tucking their kids into bed, to bundling them up and feeling their own hearts break as they listen to their children cry themselves to sleep in the back seat of the family car because their hungry bellies ache. The difference is only a few paychecks. That's all it takes to destroy lives. A few missed paychecks is all it takes to throw a family into poverty that takes months, sometimes years, to recover from.

Keep this in mind the next time you see a mother counting pennies at the register for a loaf of bread and a gallon of milk. Keep it in mind the next time you pass a food-drive bin at the supermarket. Keep it in mind the next time you see an old man picking cans out of a trash can. Give the mother a buck. Drop a can of soup in the bin. Give the man a burger. Support your local soup kitchen. Donate your old clothes and shoes to a church. Let your kid's friend in the tattered clothes come over for dinner. Every little bit helps. You may be doing much more than you think. Those donated clothes could be what allows a father to get the job he needs to take care of his family. That can of soup could be what fills a child's hungry belly.

It's up to us to take care of each other in times of need. I know you see ads on television everyday about hungry people in far off places, but there are just as many in your own back yard. Help someone in your community. It means more than you will ever know, and you will never feel bad about it. In fact, every time you help someone in need, you will feel better. The knowledge that you will be the reason that a little girl can fall asleep with a full stomach, instead of hunger pains, will always make you feel better.

Donate. Help. Care.