Someone online sold my mailing address so now instead of just getting letters from the few charities I can afford to support, I am also getting letters from a dozen other charities asking for my help. One of my more cynical friends spouted the old adage, “No good deed ever goes unpunished.” I just smiled and didn’t argue knowing it wouldn’t change his mind. My own mind, however, was remembering another moment from many years ago.

It was a windy, snowy day in December. I was a young Dad who had saved just enough cash to buy my children a few presents for Christmas. As I walked to the store I saw the Salvation Army kettle with a man ringing a bell standing beside it. Next to him was his daughter, a little girl no more than three feet tall, bundled up against the biting cold. I took a dollar bill out of my wallet and dropped it into the kettle. As the man was thanking me, though, I felt a pressure on my legs. I looked down and saw that the little girl was giving me her own thank you hug. I smiled down at her, bent down and hugged her back. Then I went inside feeling a warmth that no winter wind could ever take away.

Thinking back on that moment in time reminded me that no good deed ever goes unrewarded. We may not always get an instantaneous, heart-felt hug but in time every act of giving, every act of goodness, and every act of love that we make flows from heart to heart and soul to soul, around the world and back to us again.

No good deed is ever wasted. Every good deed brings a little bit of Heaven here to Earth. Don’t let this sometimes cynical world get you down then. Don’t let the problems and pains of life pull you from your purpose. Share your love today! Give from your heart. Fill your life with acts of kindness. Let God’s light shine through everything you say and everything you do.