Impact

This past weekend my grandson Brandon schooled me on the power of impact. I took Brandon camping for the first time. The Cub Scout Pack he belongs to planned this past Saturday as a day filled with sports, fun, friends, and fishing culminating with the last Pack meeting of the year and then a covered dish dinner. They also invited families to stay the night camping if they so desired. The weather report didn’t look promising and the thought of setting up a tent on a rainy Saturday with people I barely know held little pleasure for me. Brandon slept over our house Friday night and helped get the truck packed as my wife pushed me through this upcoming ordeal. Here I was silently dreading going and while Brandon’s excitement was evident, it wasn’t until we got in the truck and were driving to the campsite that he really opened up about how excited he was. 

Then it struck me. A story I’d read many moons ago about an old man searching for a photo of his wife who had recently passed when he came by a journal his son had kept when he was little that his wife had saved. Shaking his head at how she saved everything as he was thumbing through it, he found an entry with words, “Went fishing with Dad…BEST DAY EVER!” Not remembering the day and for the moment forgetting the quest for a photo, the man searched through the journals he had kept over the years and in his journal on the same day he found the following written down in his writing, “Wasted the day fishing with Tommy and we didn’t catch anything.” 

This story hit me hard when I originally read it and even harder when I was living it. The blessing I got was instead of finding out years later, I got to see it immediately and was so moved and honored to be sharing this event with my grandson. It’s something he and I will treasure for years to come. Now we both were excited for the weekend and had such an amazing time together. He’s already asking about the next time we can go camping again. I’ve always loved the outdoors and now to be able to share that with Brandon is just amazing. 

So, why am I sharing this story with you? Because there’s an important lesson here that applies to you. There are things you do every day that aren’t any big deal to you that mean the world to someone else. The smile you gave a person passing by, unbeknownst to you, gave them the strength to deal with a loss and to carry on. Or taking the time to help someone get something out of reach at the store. The list of possibilities goes on and on. Your life impacts others every day and it’s your choice what that impact is. Choose wisely and show the world just how AMAZING you are!