Thursday, December 17, 2009

She Let Me Ring the Bell!

I spent an hour this afternoon at Hobby Lobby with a red bucket, ringing a bell. I was one of the infamous Salvation Army bell ringers. I volunteered to do it, because I believe the Salvation Army is a great minstry. I also did it to get away from my job for an hour.


I wondered just how slowly the time would drag on, and how annoying the sound of that bell would get.
It's fair to say, I didn't know what to expect. This was my first go-round.

So, how did it turn out? It was such a fun hour.  It went by pretty fast.  I smiled and greeted people, I told them "thank you" when they dropped their change in the bucket, I wished them a Merry Christmas.  I was constantly smiling, and most people gave a little something.  But, the best part, was the kids! There's just something intriguing about putting change in that pot, apparently.  As they walked in and saw it, they would stop what they were doing, and whisper, "Mom, can I do that?"  I know it's more about doing something fun than actually understand what they were doing, but we can really learn something from them.  Maybe sometimes we should just GIVE, even if we don't know why.  Those little dolls were such cheerful givers. 

My favorite was a little blond haired boy about two years old.    He dropped in his pocketful of change, one coin at a time, jabbering the whole time about dropping in his money, and me ringing the bell.  When his change was gone, he looked up at me and smiled, and I said "You want to ring the bell?"  He rang it, handed it back, asked Grandma to put him in the cart, and took off jabbering about how "She let me ring the bell."  That little exchange, and the excitement in his eyes brought me so much joy.  The whole thing would've been worth it just for that, even if I hadn't enjoyed the rest of the hour. 

Lucky for him, and strategic, I'm sure, on Grandma's part, they paid cash.  So, on the way out, he had more change to give.  We went through the whole exchange again.  On the way out, his Grandma said, "Tell her Merry Christmas."  His face lit up, and he exlaimed, "Merry Christmas! YAY!!  MERRY CHRISTMAS!!" 

And that concluded my bell ringing.  It warmed my heart.  I would definitely do it again, and would recommend volunteering to do it.  It was an hour well-spent.

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