Breakfast at McDonald's: A Forwarded Email Life Story

This
is a good story and is true, please read it all the way
through until
the end! (After the story, there are some
very interesting facts!):

I am a mother of three (ages
14, 12, 3) and have recently completed my
college
degree.
The last class I had to take was
Sociology.

The teacher was absolutely inspiring with
the qualities that I wish every
human being had been
graced with.

Her last project of the term was called,
'Smile.'

The class was asked to go out and smile at
three people and document their
reactions.

I am a
very friendly person and always smile at everyone and say
hello
anyway. So, I thought this would be a piece of cake,
literally.

Soon after we were assigned the project, my
husband, youngest son, and I
went out to McDonald's one
crisp March morning.

It was just our way of sharing
special playtime with our son.

We were standing in
line, waiting to be served, when all of a sudden
everyone
around us began to back away, and then even my husband
did.

I did not move an inch... an overwhelming feeling
of panic welled up inside
of me as I turned to see why
they had moved.

As I turned around I smelled a horrible
'dirty body' smell, and there
standing behind me were two
poor homeless men.

As I looked down at the short
gentleman, close to me, he was 'smiling'.

His
beautiful sky blue eyes were full of God's Light as he
searched for
acceptance.

He said, 'Good day' as he
counted the few coins he had been clutching.

The second
man fumbled with his hands as he stood behind his friend. I

realized the second man was mentally challenged and the
blue-eyed gentleman was his salvation.

I held my tears
as I stood there with them.

The young lady at the
counter asked him what they wanted.

He said, 'Coffee is
all Miss' because that was all they could afford. (If
they
wanted to sit in the restaurant and warm up, they had to buy

something. He just wanted to be warm).

Then I
really felt it - the compulsion was so great I almost reached
out
and embraced the little man with the blue
eyes.

That is when I noticed all eyes in the restaurant
were set on me, judging
my every action.

I smiled
and asked the young lady behind the counter to give me two
more
breakfast meals on a separate tray.

I then
walked around the corner to the table that the men had chosen
as a
resting spot. I put the tray on the table and laid my
hand on the blue-eyed
gentleman's cold hand.

He
looked up at me, with tears in his eyes, and said, 'Thank
you.'

I leaned over, began to pat his hand and said, 'I
did not do this for you.
God is here working through me to
give you hope.'

I started to cry as I walked away to
join my husband and son. When I sat
down my husband smiled
at me and said, 'That is why God gave you to me,
Honey, to
give me hope.'

We held hands for a moment and at that
time, we knew that only because of
the Grace that we had
been given were we able to give.

We are not church
goers, but we are believers.

That day showed me the
pure Light of God's sweet love.

I returned to college,
on the last evening of class, with this story in

hand.

I turned in 'my project' and the instructor
read it.

Then she looked up at me and said, 'Can I
share this?'

I slowly nodded as she got the attention
of the class.

She began to read and that is when I knew
that we as human beings and being part of God share this need
to heal people and to be healed.

In my own way I had
touched the people at McDonald's, my son, instructor,
and
every soul that shared the classroom on the last night I spent
as a college student.

I graduated with one of the
biggest lessons I would ever
learn:


UNCONDITIONAL
ACCEPTANCE.




May you learn Unconditional acceptance too. Please Forward this to all that you know.

Thanks to my friend Gwend for forwarding this email.