A Beautiful Heart
By Steve Goodier

One grandfather quipped about his grandchildren: "My grandkids are four and six. The Pulitzer Prize winner is four and the brain surgeon is six."

Parents and grandparents are understandably proud of the quick minds and impressive talents of their little ones. But let me tell you about another quality, perhaps even more important, found in a little girl named Skylar.

I received a letter recently from a grandmother who told me about her four-year-old granddaughter Skylar. Ever since Skylar learned of Disneyland from TV, she saved her nickels and dimes in a piggy bank in hopes of visiting there someday. Her parents surprised her with a trip when she was four, however, and didn’t even require her to use her own money!

When Skylar returned it was Christmastime. She decided to buy presents with her savings. But she also learned from announcements on TV about a local homeless shelter called “The Road House.” She repeatedly asked her mother what “homeless” meant and why those children needed coats and warm clothes. She couldn’t seem to get the homeless off her mind. (Wouldn’t it be wonderful if everyone had that problem?)

Her mother took her to the store to buy presents. Instead of buying for herself or her family, however, she decided to purchase a warm coat, socks, gloves and crayons for a little girl in the shelter. She also wanted to buy a doll (a “baby,” as she called it), but when she discovered she didn’t have enough money, she left the doll behind.

When Skylar got home, she lined up her own much-loved “babies” and chose one she thought another child could also love. The baby went into a box with the other items she bought that day.

She was so excited waiting for Christmas! Skylar was not thinking about Santa Claus or the presents she would be getting. She was thinking about going to the shelter and giving her carefully selected gifts to a homeless child.

On Christmas Eve she and her family drove to the shelter where Skylar presented her Christmas box to a grateful little girl. She was so filled with joy at truly helping someone else, that her family has decided to make the journey to the homeless shelter an annual tradition.

"Perhaps it's good to have a beautiful mind, but an even greater gift is to have a beautiful heart," says Nobel Laureate John Nash ("A Beautiful Mind"). A beautiful heart is that gift...that leads us...into the beauty of giving.

See Also:

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Are You Mortgaging Your Dream?
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