I had read this story years ago, and it always has touched me. Maybe because I was a Mother myself many times in situations where I wish I could have explained my actions. Yet, I too have fallen guilty of judging too quickly…well knowing that we don’t know the whole picture. Making a quick judgment is so easy, but like this story…things may not always be what they seem.
I hope you enjoy it.
Good night dear friends!
Serving Others
Stranded in an airport because of bad weather, a young mother and her two-year-old daughter had been waiting in long lines for hours trying to get a flight home. The child was tired and fussy, but the mother, who was pregnant and at risk of miscarriage, did not pick her up. A doctor had advised the mother to avoid lifting the two-year-old unless absolutely necessary. The woman overheard disapproving comments from people around her as she used her foot to slide her crying daughter along in the line. Nobody offered to help. But then, the woman later recalled, “someone came towards us and with a kindly smile said, ‘Is there something I could do to help you?’ With a grateful sigh I accepted his offer. He lifted my sobbing little daughter from the cold floor and lovingly held her to him while he patted her gently on the back. He asked if she could chew a piece of gum. When she was settled down, he carried her with him and said something kindly to the others in the line ahead of me, about how I needed their help. They seemed to agree and then he went up to the ticket counter [at the front of the line] and made arrangements with the clerk for me to be put on a flight leaving shortly. He walked with us to a bench, where we chatted a moment, until he was assured that I would be fine. He went on his way. About a week later I saw a picture of Apostle Spencer W. Kimball and recognized him as the stranger in the airport.”
http://www.lds.org/ensign/2007/01/spencer-w-kimball-man-of-action?lang=eng
Later at the end of the story Spencer W. Kimball got a letter from a young man. Here is just a part of his letter to him…
… a story was told of a loving service which you performed some 21 years ago in the Chicago airport. The story told of how you met a young pregnant mother with a young screaming child in … a [condition of] distress waiting in a long line for her tickets. She was threatening miscarriage and therefore couldn’t lift her child to comfort her. She had experienced four previous miscarriages which gave added reason for the doctor’s orders not to bend or lift.“… You comforted the crying child, and explained the dilemma to the other passengers in line. This act of love took the strain and tension off of my mother. I was born a few months later in Flint, Michigan.
“I just want to thank you for your love. Thank you for your example!”
“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” ~Anne Frank
“It is not so much what we know that is important, as what we do and what we are.” ~ Spencer W. Kimball
