How Do You Give Back In Suburbia?

A friend’s blog post today brought this very question to mind, mainly how do you truly give back or do for others before yourself? Also a recent random act of kindness towards myself and my daughter this week by a stranger we did not know or even saw begged this question to me as well. A stranger bought our meal! He did not know us, our situation, or whose meal he was buying but to me it was an amazing and awestruck experience and I do vow to pay it forward. However, I have been struggling with how to do that in Suburbia and simply enough for our means but strong enough to mean something.

I have also mentioned how I am a transplant to Suburbia but may not have mentioned that I work downtown in a place where you see the bad and the ugly while trying to do and sort out the good. It is hard not to judge I will be honest, but I try – I give my patients the same care but sometimes I do have to admit I may give extra TLC to those who are not using the system but are really in need. I treat them all kindly, with the same professionalism and smile, but I feel I go the extra mile for those whom have displayed true need sometimes over those who make it no secret that they are going to get every ounce out of “the system” that they can.

Now in Suburbia, how do you know randomly those in need or how to give to the strangers in need? More importantly as my friend put it, how do you put others not only before yourself but put others before your family when it comes to charity, following truly in God’s footsteps, etc (especially if you are feeling the struggle yourself)? So even though I am working out the details my mind made the list below:

I am struggling to find a better job to support my family, yet there is someone out there trying to find A JOB to support their family.

My daughter was told she could do better with tie shoes (but is ok) with her special inserts even though I just got her shoes; there are children who are struggling to fit into their current shoes or don’t have any.

I need to buy diapers and wipes yet AGAIN already (for sensitive skin); there are children whose parents have no idea how to get the next set of generic diapers.

The car needs gas; many are in need of a bus pass – which has also increased in price along with the price of gas.

I think God knew when we got our random act of kindness how much I needed to believe in the kindness of humanity for the sake of good/community and hopefully he will lead me to find some ways from just some of the above ideas of how even though I struggle there are those who are struggling more. I pray God will lead me to the right “who” in my community or maybe downtown is where to start – I just hope this is a start in learning and teaching my family how to put others before ourselves.