Last week, I went to a shop to buy recharge units for my phone. I wanted to call my mum back in Ghana. I missed
home, but that’s not the point here. Stay with me on this one! After the man handed me the card, I asked him to scratch off the silver panel that reveals the secret code for recharging phone credit. He said, “No problem!” He took it from me and kindly did what I asked. I didn’t have a coin on me to do it myself. After he handed me back the card in the process of walking away, I was hitting the buttons on my phone then the man called me and guess what? “You forgot your change!” I didn’t forget I wanted to test his will. Almost few centimeters away, “Oh It’s ok!” I whispered to him. The man was SHOCKED! You could tell from his face. Maybe no one had done that to him before. I don’t know. His emotions and smiles just made me smile too.
Next day, I went to see this man again in the shop to buy soap that night. The man thanked me so much for yesterday. I said, “hey never mind” I bought my soap, and this time again I left the change. This time the change was much smaller than the other one. He drew my attention again when I walked away. This time I only waved, and he understood. The man nodded his head and smiled again. That one moment made me happy; putting a smile on a fellow brother’s face. Same thing happened with a taxi driver. He dropped me home one day from church. I gave him the money when we arrived and he claimed he didn’t have change. I was not surprised, it always happened when the money is a bit large. Maybe I was his first passenger for the day, who knows? You know happened? I told him to keep the change. Yes! Of course I know the change was big, but I just told him to keep it and got down fast, shut his door. The man pulled his head through to see me on the other side. He asked, “Are you sure?” I just nodded and smiled, and he said, “thank you, sir.” Hey the man was way older than I was. He could have been the same age with my father. I noticed that as he turned his car and drove away, he couldn’t keep his eyes off me. Maybe he thought I was some angel that had come down to assist him that day so he waiting to see if I would disappear…of course I couldn’t. I just walked through the gate. Whatever the man thought didn’t matter to me. I made someone smile today and that’s what matters.
I’m not saying leave all your change anytime you visit a shop, sometimes you do need it, I know. Just perform those little acts of kindness to people you meet. You think you can’t! Look out for opportunities to make people smile today. I’m sure you can, that’s easy!
