A lesson in pay it forward...

Something nice happened to me unexpectedly Thursday that still has me smiling. John and I took DJ out to eat yesterday (no school for P/T conferences and he was with me for the day). The restaurant had one of those "games" where you try to pick up your prize and drop it in the slot. DJ loves it and is really good at it so I gave him a few quarters and 75 cents later he comes back to the table with a cute stuffed lion. There was a couple with their small son (6 mos. old we learned) and a grandpa nearby and I suggested to DJ that maybe he might like to give the lion to the little boy since we didn't need it and his fun is just winning it. He thought it was a great idea and trotted over and gave the baby the toy. The family waved and we watched the little one play with his grandpa and the lion....lots of shaking, kissing and then eventually throwing it on the floor to see who picked it up. LOL! When the family left, the mother came over with the baby (clutching the lion) to thank DJ again for giving it to him. They left and a few minutes later our food arrived. When she put the food down the waitress said "The man at table 17 picked up your bill"! The family had repaid DJ's kindness by buying out lunch! We were all so touched by this. We had a great talk with DJ about how being nice and doing nice things without expecting anything can sometimes bring wonderful surprises. Put out good and good will come back to you. Pay it forward in action.