Give It

Valentine's Day is a day for love, but it's also a day for giving. I now have a permanent Valentine so we, my wife and I, gave away a box of chocolates to some strangers. We were on BYU campus Saturday night looking for a stranger who would accept the gift. I saw two policemen talking by their car and made the suggestion that we give the chocolates to them. My wife agreed that it would be a good way to let them know they are appreciated.

The cops immediately asked what we did to the box. I realized then that they had a good reason to be suspicious. They are prone to receive undesirable gifts. But, they were kidding when they asked us what we did to the box of chocolates. I then decided to explain why I was giving candy to a stranger. I received an assignment in my Management Communications class to give something to a stranger. Telling them about the assignment kind of ruined the sincerity of giving the chocolate, but it dismissed any suspicion. They weren't worried about it; though, it ended up being a great conversation starter. The one officer told us about a time when he was at the police station and a couple kids brought in a box of doughnuts. His story doesn't need to be repeated here, but it was interesting that the act of service was able to make strangers not so strange.

We shouldn't need an assignment to get us to be kind and willing to give. Nevertheless, any act of service can start an interesting conversation.