More Kindness Than Necessary

We took nearly the whole 7th grade to see the movie "Wonder" the Friday before Thanksgiving.  It's a great story and one of the big themes is to choose kindness.  Choosing kindness is something that we talk about all the time at EMS.  The movie was great but there was one part that was in the book that I was a little sad wasn't in the movie.  It was part of a speech the principal was giving his students and he quoted a book by JM Barrie and said "always be a little kinder than necessary."  That's what Winter Wishes is to me.  It's kids making perfect wishes for their friends and classmates, it's teachers meeting for hours and hours after school to work on trying to put those wishes together, it's a community who blesses the program financially, and numerous prayer warriors who bless it spiritually.  All of these people and groups show kindness but they all go a little above and beyond and show even more kindness than necessary and that's a key to the success of the program.

Today I'm including a photo of a student who has had a profound influence on me.  Last year he wanted to buy a wish for a student.  This isn't something we promote or ask kids to do but for lots of reasons we let him.  He picked the perfect gift for the perfect wish.  A few days later I ran into him on the weekend and asked what he was up to.  He told me he had asked his relatives to not give him gifts that year but instead he would like money to purchase gifts for others who wouldn't have any and that particular weekend he was shopping for those gifts. Everything we had been talking about in our classes this young man had put into practice.  Before Thanksgiving break he came by and wanted the chance to buy some more wishes this year and once again we let him.  This morning first thing he brought bags full of the things he had purchased.  He's a very humble guy but this morning I asked if he would let me take his photo and he finally agreed.  Yes, he helped our program because he purchased some wishes but even a bigger deal is how he touches our hearts by practicing "more kindness than necessary."  He inspires me to be better and he lives the principals we are trying to teach.  Thank you AJ for putting concepts into practice and changing the world one act of kindness at a time.