ROAK #1 2015

ROAK #1 was from Mom. I was walking into Walmart with a grocery list of my own and as I was walking in these kids asked me if I wanted to help The Dream Center? I said SURE! They then handed me a list of food items.

I took the list of food items and looked it over as I was walking into the produce department. For a minute I stopped and just thought to myself:

"Wow. Ya never know how blessed you are until you realize these kids wouldn't have a nice Thanksgiving Dinner without the donations from the Community"

"Here I am splurging on food, crafty yummy food that is sort of expensive and these kids just want to enjoy Thanksgiving Dinner"

"Gosh I feel like a schmuck"

"I seriously feel like I take what I have for granted!"

"I need to get better at giving instead of wanting all the time"

"I'm a schmuck"!

I then gathered myself together. Got 1 or more of everything on this grocery list and remembered not to cheap their food with a bunch of generic brands. I bought Thanksgiving foods on the list that I would buy for my own family.

Talk about a blessing, a lesson and a heartache all at one time.

I then went home, sat my kids down at the kitchen table and told them all about the story. What happened. How I felt. {I left out the word schmuck and replaced it with ungrateful} and their eyes were big. They heard me loud and clear. Did it change their ungratefulness? Not a whole lot but I think over time if we were to do this enough while making our children EARN what they "want" most of the time, they may just turn out to have big hearts one day. And teach their children the value of giving.

~ Our Shank Family