HELPING OTHERS – PAYING IT FORWARD
“CAST YOUR BREAD UPON THE WATERS AND IN MANY DAYS IT WILL COME BACK TO YOU” – by Mary A. LaClair
“Can you tell us how to get to Gander Mountain?” 
“What? Panther Mountain?”
“No, the store, Gander Mountain.”
My husband thought and said ‘follow me’. We were in the parking lot of Home Depot and had to exit the city to the suburbs to get to Gander Mountain. I was pleased that he offered to go a bit out of our way to do this for a stranger. The out-of-town couple was very grateful for the ‘escort’ to their destination.
It was a few weeks later that I was in a neighboring city, had missed the expressway exit I wanted. It was late evening, it was dark and clouding up to almost blackness; it was rapidly threatening bad thunderstorms and torrential rain. I couldn’t find my way. Under the foreboding sky I stopped at a Nice ‘n Easy to seek directions. A man leaning up against the building said, “I’m going that way, follow me, when we get to the circle, I’m going to take the 
second exit, you take the fourth exit off that circle.” It was easy to follow him and then follow his directions. I arrived at the expressway exit easily and before the heavens opened up in a dark and heavy thunderstorm.
The next week, our daughter had a meeting in the Capitol. She had used the right exit, but the directions after that didn’t seem right. They stopped for directions. You guessed it: the person they asked said, “It’s only a few blocks, and there are some one-way streets, just follow me and I’ll get you there.”
When she told us of this a few days later, she said, “Mom, I said, ‘Bless Dad for leading that couple to the Gander Mountain store that day a few weeks ago because I reaped the harvest’.”
I then told her that the harvest was double, because someone had helped me in the same way! Harvests are always more than the seed planted!
It was still a few weeks later, that the meaning of a Scripture which had puzzled me for years, came to me.
Eccl 11:1 says: “ Give generously, for your gifts will return to you later. TLB
But, I learned it as:
“Cast your bread upon the water and in due time it will come back to you.”
And it wasn’t even soggy! 
– end-
P.S. This was first published by CAPPERS magazine in 2012. It is a nice little magazine from the Heartland.
http://www.cappersmagazine.com/
Charles Stanley says: “We reap what we sow, more than we sow, later than we sow.” Bullies take note.
The Book: Magnificent Obsession by Lloyd Douglas, the one written in, I believe 1935, is good reading on this topic. I believe it was also made into a movie once or twice. It is a classic, and if made required reading in schools, could/would go a long way to drastically curb bullying.
Teaching ‘bullies’ to replace bad behavior with good behavior will eliminate a void in their life. The lessons in this book could do that job.
Lloyd Douglas is the author of THE ROBE, THE BIG FISHERMAN, WHITE BANNERS AND MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION, which is the one recommended here. This writer is not sure if the more modern movie is actually based upon this book. It is if the theme is: ‘The Gift Goes On’.
Thanks for reading…
Look, Listen & Think 