Compassion

Today is Compassion Day. Compassion is showing sympathy or concern for someone else. Yesterday, I got to experience compassion first hand between a pre-teenage boy and my toddler daughter.

Because it is Lent, we found ourselves last night eating pizza at a local restaurant that also has a game room. After eating a cheese pizza, the kids headed to the game room to play. My daughter became very nervous in the room with all of the lights and sounds. She would put money in a game, and if the game was too loud, she would say, “Too loud. I not like it.” Then, she would walk away. All night, I noticed a pre-teen (maybe 11 or 12) following us around and playing the games my daughter was turning down. I was glad the money wasn’t being wasted.

Once we were done playing games, we headed for the ticket booth. Because my daughter turned down so many games, she ended up with four tickets, whereas, her brother had close to 100. Shortly after we arrived at the ticket booth, the pre-teen boy was behind us. He said,”Excuse me, these tickets are for her. I have been playing her games and won them so she could have a prize.”I was almost in tears when he handed her 50 tickets! As she took the tickets in her hand, the biggest smile came across her face. She got to leave with three prizes because that boy had compassion on her.

It made me think, “What kind of world would we have if everyone showed that kind of compassion?” All we need to do is genuinely care for the person next to us. Then, we could change this world one person at a time.