Benevolent and selfless giving

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One year ago today, the daily Pierini Fitness blogflection was about my planned attempt to deliver a dozen random acts of kindness during the Christmas season. A recent event that a friend of my wife shared with her challenged me to think big when contemplating random acts of kindness.

This friend of my wife has a young adult son about 30 years of age who had a respectable job as an engineer making about $80,000 a year. His employer had financial difficulty and recently announced that some employees would be losing their jobs as layoffs were right around the corner. Fortunately, this young man was not among those scheduled to receive a layoff notice, but one unfortunate recipient was this older and middle-age engineer, the sole breadwinner for his wife and dependent children.

When the younger – and single - engineer learned of his co-worker’s ensuing plight, he asked his employer to instead give the “pink slip” notice to him so his co-worker – the older engineer with family and greater financial obligations – could keep his job. That’s exactly what the employer did in honoring the young man’s request.

This young, and now unemployed, man shared with his mom that his action seemed like the right thing for him to do. Obviously he’s a very brave and confident person and I’m sure that abundant opportunities await him.

With Christmas Day a mere 6 days away, today is as good a time as any to challenge myself with a commitment to deliver another dozen random acts of kindness – that’s two per day – regardless of whatever else charitable I’ve done thus far this year. I’m grateful to learn of this young man’s random act of kindness and the favor he has done me by raising the bar of benevolent and selfless giving.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum