Paying It Forward, Wet Pants and All

This story was shared with me by a priest a few years back and is a great reminder for all of us to ask ourselves if we are paying it forward, wet pants and all.

Come with me to a third-grade classroom….

There is a nine-year-old kid sitting at his desk and all of a sudden, there is a puddle between his feet and front of his pants are wet. He thinks his heart is going to stop because he cannot possibly imagine how this has happened. It’s never happened before, and he knows that when the boys find out, he will never hear the end of it. When the girls find out, they’ll never speak to him again as long as he lives.

The boy believes his heart is going to stop; he puts his head down and prays this prayer:

“Dear God, this is an emergency! I need help now! Five minutes from now, I’m dead meat.”

He looks up from his prayer and her comes the teacher with a look in her eyes that says he has been discovered.

As the teacher is walking toward him, a classmate named Susie is carrying a goldfish bowl that is filled with water Susie trips in front of the teacher and inexplicably dumps the bowl of water on the boys’ lap.

The boy pretends to be angry, but all the while is saying to himself, “Thank you, Lord! Thank you, Lord!”

Now all of a sudden, instead of being the object of ridicule, the boy is the object of sympathy. The teacher rushes him downstairs and gives him gym shorts to put on while his pants dry out. All the other children are on their hands and knees cleaning up around the desk. The sympathy is wonderful. But as life would have it, the ridicule that should have been his has been transferred to someone else – Susie.

She tries to help, but they tell her to get out. “You’ve done enough, you klutz!”

Finally, at the end of the day, as they were waiting for the bus, the boy walks over to Susie and whispers, “You did that on purpose, didn’t you?” Susie whispers back, “I wet my pants once too.”

What are we doing with the gift of life and all its blessings that God has granted us? Are we paying it forward to help improve the lives of others? Are we using our blessings to bring praise to Jesus, the source of all good things? May God help us to see the opportunities that are always around us to do good each and every day.

“As each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God’s varied grace. Whoever preaches, let it be with the words of God; whoever serves, let it be with the strength that God supplies, so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”  ~1 Peter 4:10-11

On this cold and frosty morning, it is possible to experience the presence of God. Find out how.