Teaching the Extra Mile
Teaching the Extra Mile
Nov 24
As I walked toward the front door of our office I saw a pickup truck parked out front and a man carrying in boxes of groceries for our single moms’ ministry. Walking by I grabbed a box to help him.
All of a sudden I realized I wasn’t alone. Tyler, a twelve-year-old, was behind me carrying a box as well. He was at our office that day because he had a day off from school and had come to work with his mom.
When I turned around to go get another box, Tyler beat me to the truck and never stopped until the truck was empty. When we finished he vanished into the building to find his mom. I had to track him down to thank him.
“No problem,” this twelve-year-old responded, “glad to help.”
This is a mom who has taught her child to go the extra mile. Doing the extra, like not walking by an abandoned shopping cart in the grocery store parking lot. But instead go out of the way to help by pushing the cart inside since he’s going that way anyway. Doing extra like that! Things you don’t have to do… but you do them anyway.
This is also a mom who is raising an employable child. I want that kid on my staff when he grows up. He’s been trained to “get it”. He has been trained to go the extra mile.
Agreed, most of us are so accustomed to doing to the bare minimum, not purposely, but rather because that’s what our schedule allows for (or so we think). If you really took our time into consideration, we would realize that the extra minute or two taken to walk back your shopping cart after unloading it, didn’t really alter your schedule all that much.
Matt: 5:41, “If anyone forces you to go a mile, go two miles with him”
So does this mean that I have to start walking my shopping carts to the designated shots in the parking lots instead of just leaving them in the way?