A Boston florist named Henry Penn once told how two boys and a girl came into his floral shop one day and explained: “We’re the committee, and we’d like to buy some pretty yellow flowers, sir. So, you have any yellow flowers? He’d like them better if they were yellow. He had a yellow sweater.”

Are they for someone’s funeral? Asked Penn.

The children nodded and fought to keep back the tears. “She’s his sister,” explained one of the boys. “He was a good kid. A truck yesterday … we were playing in the street; we saw it happen.”

Then the other boy added, “Us kids took up a collection. We got 18 cents. Would roses cost a lot, mister? Yellow roses?”

Touched by their tragic story, Penn replied, “I have some nice yellow roses here that I am selling for 18 cents a dozen just this morning.”

The sympathetic florist accepted the 18 cents and the committee of children carried away the flowers. Said Penn, “I felt uplifted for days. I had been given the inexpressible privilege of sharing something.”

Many people live frustrated lives precisely because they do not know the joy of sharing. Sharing does not diminish; it is an opening through which we receive. Giving to others makes it possible for God to give to us; the more we share, the more we have left.

Someone needs you today. Perhaps it is a member of your family. It could be someone with whom you work. It may be a friend who phones you out of the blue.

Mark it down: you will be in touch with someone today who needs what you have to give. She may just need your time. He may need your skill or kindness. It may be an affirmation of worth. Maybe that person will need to be challenged to get his or her life back on a positive, productive life path.

By sharing yourself with someone today, you will multiply your joy in living. You will become an instrument of God in the world.

Rubel Shelly The FAX of Life