Mini-Motivation: Baby's R Us

As a follow up to "The Motivations" topic, I will be posting specific examples of motivations each day until I'm ready to post the third topic. Since Kim is delivering a meal to a family with a new baby tomorrow, I think its appropriate to start with this mini motivation: Baby's R Us. Check it out.

My wife is actively involved in a baby ministry at church in which she and a host of other women take meals to families with new born babies. She really enjoys this ( as do I when I get the chance to come along) and loves to pamper the families with a wonderful, full course meal. Sometimes, if we're able to spare some grocery money, she will pickup a package of diapers to give, just because we know that money can be tight when there's a new born - diapers, formula, baby stuff, bills, and insurance costs. So in the midst of all the excitement there can also be a lot of underlying stress to take away from this joyfull time.

Let's say that we're out of debt and many of the other ladies involved are too. How amazing would it be for each meal that is delivered to the families include something extra special? Instead, my wife delivers a meal and says, "Hey, I thought you could use some diapers - here's a month's supply!" Or "I know formula is expensive so I found out what kind you're using and picked up a months supply of it for you." Better yet, what if we could include a $500 gift card to Walmart? Here's a real kicker... since the ladies would be out debt, they could easily do the following:

Upon arrival with the last meal, the new mother and father hear the news that "We've contacted the hospital and your doctor - your bills are paid in full. You don't owe a dime for that little miracle you're holding." How quickly do you think the tears would begin to flow? In fact, I'm starting to tear up right now! I'm sort of emotional like that.

Thankfully most of people have insurance that takes care of most of the costs associated with have babies, but we all must come out of pocket some - usually more than $1k. How much relief would it be to that new family to not have to worry about those bills. My point with this story is that we're not able to do even this small gesture of kindness for people. If we can't do these small things because of the amount of debt that we have or the fact that we would have to dip into personal savings to do it, then how could we even begin to tackle bigger issues, such as, world hunger?