The sufficiency of my merit is to know that my merit is not sufficient.

Augustine

Hear my prayer, O Lord, give ear to my supplications: in thy faithfulness answer me, and in thy righteousness.

Psalm 143:1
The King James Version

It was the day before Thanksgiving in 1949.  I was 5 years old and waiting near the lunchroom building at the school where my father was a teacher and administrator in Garden City, Texas.  Though not a student yet, I had walked the short distance from home to share the traditional Thanksgiving school lunch with Dad.  As I grasped the quarter that Mother had given me to pay for the meal, the wind carried the smell of turkey and all the trimmings.  A few feet away on the lunchroom steps sat two schoolboys not much bigger than me.  The younger one began to pull a sandwich wrapped in wax paper from a much-used brown paper bag.  His older brother, probably 8, motioned with his eyes for the sandwich to go back into the bag for the moment.  I could see that they were waiting for me to pass into the building where all the other kids were laughing and eating.  The door of the nearby administration building opened, and Dad walked our way.  As he approached, calling my name, the two boys looked at their feet.  Dad stopped with his hand on my shoulder.  The expression on his face softened.  He dug into his trouser pockets and found two shiny quarters.  He called the boys by name and said, “We will all eat turkey and dressing today.”  He gently pressed a quarter into each of their hands and opened the lunchroom door.  On that day compassion was given and received.  I saw it in the eyes of those two boys.  It was a lesson I’ve never forgotten.

David S. Parsons

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