No Strings Attached

This morning my girls and I helped give out free hot chocolate in front of Wal-Mart for a few minutes.  My mom and her friend Teresa were manning the station and while I wanted to continue, the wind was chilly and having a 4 month old get sick days before Christmas is not my idea of fun!

What was interesting was that while we had a sign that said FREE hot chocolate and while we said FREE hot chocolate, people were very leery of taking it.  They just couldn’t imagine us doing something completely free.. no tips, no fundraiser, no anything.  Just a Merry Christmas!

I think part of the nervousness that people had was the venue, when you walk up to the doors and people are standing there, if you are like me, you are already rehearsing your “No” speech.  No cash.. maybe on the way out… you know the speech I am talking about.  So when we offered something free, we threw people for a loop.  It was unexpected.  How fun! It kind of fits the Christmas story doesn’t :)

I don’t know how many cups of hot chocolate were served this morning, but I do know that many more people were touched than actually took cups.    And let me brag on my girls for a second.  Yesterday when I was making the leaflets for the cups they asked about what I was doing.  I explained and they said Oh and just smiled and went on their way.  Then this morning I said we were going to go help a few minutes, that we needed a lesson in serving and they were all for it.  A little cold as they didn’t take jackets like they were told to, be they went and would have continued to serve for as long as needed. What was fun is that they never asked why or thought we were crazy, they just went.  What a lesson for us all.  We should all be willing to go and serve, even when we don’t know why!

And for those of you out there that need a reason for doing things like this, go read The Outward Focused Life or check out the website. http://outwardfocusedlife.com/