Early on in my marriage, we were young and poor and my car broke down...a friend paid to have my car fixed and would not take money from me. When my sister, a few years later had a small child and was having money problems, my husband and I put money in an envelope, explaining that it wasn't a loan...to just pass the thought on when she could....my sister is the greatest proponent of it and regularly just sends sums of money off to her nieces and nephews when she sees that they need it.

Cashnquilt-what a beautiful thing you did for that woman. She will never forget your kindness and you will never forget her gratitude and her accomplishments. You are one of the Angels here.

i am really enjoying reading everyone's stories!! big or small they are wonderful acts of kindness!! it is so great that there are so many awesome people out in this world doing things for others everyday!!
keep the inspirational stories coming!!

Last year at Christmas I was layed off and broke, trying to get gifts for my Grand kids. The lady ahead of me in line was 13.00 short for her order and was telling the clerk she would have to not get those 2 gifts for her children, I paid for it for her and Told her to pass it on someday! The funnist thing one day a little boy came up to me in Dollar tree and asked if I could give him 50C for a chicken for his mom (I thought a little ceramic chicken OK) I think for mothers day I gave him a dollar and he was all excited His big brother came along and said to him "Mom's gonna kill you when you bring that baby chick home" They were selling lice baby chicks next door at Tractor Supply for $1.00 each!! Gotta love that kid!

I try to do for others as often as I can, and really never expect anything in return, so was very surprised last week when DH and I were at lunch at a local restaurant. As we were almost ready to leave, the waitress stopped at out table and said our lunch had been paid for. She said 3 other tables had also been paid for by the same person. All the people at the "paid for" tables were eldery or somewhat handicapped. I have MS and have a hard time walking. One lady was on oxygen...etc. I have no idea who the person was who paid for our lunch. The waitress said she was from out of town. I asked if she used a check so I could get a name to send a thankyou. She said she had paid in cash. So a big thank you to who ever you are. I am sure she is earning her gold star, and there will be a special place in heaven for the likes of her.

humbird---just remember to "pay it forward" sometime!!

I had no idea that there was a movie. Pay It Forward has been around here for quite a while. One of the local radio stations got it started & it goes great for a while & then kind of dies down & then it will take off again. I love all of the new ideas for paying it forward. God Bless each & every one of you for all the good that's being done. Laura

Good For You Crafts by Robin!!!! I'm sure it was hard for you but you kept on. Way to Go!!!!

I have a couple of Pay it Forward stories:

#1 - My best friend taught me to quilt. Right after I learned, by DH and I went to his family's reunion. While there, they brought out the last of the belongings of one of the aunts that had passed away 2 years before. It was a "last call" before the rest went to charity. In there were some boxes of fabric pieces..she was a quilter. Her daughters had already taken what they wanted, and offered these to me. I was so thrilled!! Since then I have used several pieces of Josie's fabric in quilts for charity, and I have taught others to quilt and donated their quilts to a pediatric hospice.

#2 - On my drive to work, I sometimes see the same woman walking to the bus stop, which is several blocks from where I see her. One morning it was pouring down rain, and she was holding a piece of newspaper over head, getting very soaked. I pulled over and gave her my umbrella, which had been a sort of gift to me, thinking, good one...now what are you going to do? Guess what...when I pulled into the parking lot space, it stopped raining!! :thumbup: ;) :D

Wonderful Stories everyone! You never know what battle people are fighting and your smile or kind word/deed might just make everything better.

This doesn't have to be related to quilting in any way. just post some way that you have paid it forward recently. Get to thinking!!!
---------------
Yes, over 50 years ago I traveled to Texas from CA with an old car and
two small daughters. In the bottom of CA my car broke down in the desert near
a dry lake. And old black man stopped and offered to fix it and to take me home
with him, of course I was too frightened to accept. This nice Gentleman went home and brought back his wife, who took over us like my mother would. She fed us while Papa fixed my car, then they sent me on with a nice sack dinner, with the suggestion that I try to help other black folks. This I've done for many years, but my worst hurt was that I lost the address and names of these two marvelous people!! And I'll always remember them and their kindness. I do know that God will praise them for their actions!

Oh yes, for sure I will do that!

when I was working, I gave a lady $100.00 to buy her kids Christmas gifts, and one day at Joann's there was this sweet little lady counting her money, the lady asked her what she was making and that sweet little lady was making quilts for foster children, so I told her to put her money away and get all the fabric she wanted and I paid for it. I have payed peoples rent,electric,water bills and I have put food on many tables, and I have raised three extra boys because there parents were on drugs and I did not want to see these children in the system. know I can not help anyone and I have had to ask for fabric from the people on this board so I could learn to quilt. Penny

I can't write much right now because I can't see the keys on my keyboard through my tears. That is the most heartwarming story I have heard in years. Unbelieveable !!!

Pay it forward movie left a permanent message in my heart, whenever I do something nice for someone else I always tell them I don't want anything in return but to pay it forward. I see a lot of people who have fallen on hard times and I always do whatever I can whether it is a homeless person needing a cup of coffee or a bite to eat. A man from out of state passing thru had locked his keys in his car and I called a locksmith for him, the locksmith charged the man five extra dollars and tried to give it to me I told him NO! Give it to someone who he knew needed it he said he knew no one, I told him to put it in the church offering, I strongly believe in Pay it forward and the joy you get in your heart changes your life

I really enjoyed reading all your stories, even if they did make me cry.Sometimes it seems like everyone is out to skin you. This world is really getting in a mess. It is good to know there are still good people out there. God bless all of you. Let us all try to look for opportunites to pass it forward.

What beautiful inspiration!!!!

Several years ago my DH had to have seven hand operations after severing two of his fingers. He lost his job, no health insurance, and I had no job.
Our church at the time, helped us with some bills and repairs to his vehicle. Two sets of families gave us $125.00 each and wanted nothing in return except to play it forward. The 'church' family gave us some money and wanted us to 'return' the money when were able(this actually came from the preacher). They said they could not call it a loan as church's can't loan money, but they did want it returned. That set a little wrong with us, but a few years later things turned around for us. We not only re-paid the church with an offering, but to this day they have new fellowship hall tables (11)and a new storage shed they use all the time from 'anonymous'. Only one man in the church knew we had donated it. He never did tell anyone who donated it. We actually doubled the payment of the 'loan' because we knew it was what God wanted. We were not to take on the same attitude as the preacher.

We were ostracized (sp) by several of the folks in that church before we finished paying them back. The preacher and one other family were the worst.
We changed churches knowing we had to pay it forward with the money the two families had given us.

This Christmas, my DH gave $125 to a Veteran down on his luck so he could pay his electric bill. One down.
The DD of the one familly above, goes to my current church. She is very sick quite often (meningitis, gallbladder, infections)and having no health insurance and having to travel about 120 miles to another hospital for her meningitis. A month ago, she had a pancreatitis attack and was in the hospital again. My DH and I knew without a doubt we had to give her the other $125. After church we drove to town, went to her room, and guess who was in the room? Her mom and the preacher's wife who had ostracized us years ago. Well, mustering all the courage I could, I went in the room, smiled, said I had something for her, gave it to her and said she could open it later when she was alone that we were just passing it forward because so many folks had helped us years ago, and left. What a great feeling to have finished what we owed back. Now to keep doing it for others in need. Two down.

Sorry so long. Wanted to set the stage so to speak. It is true that what goes around comes around.

great story, thank you so much for sharing. it was awful of the preacher to do that to you and am sorry you had to deal with that. but....you came through and are helping others and are a better person for it. thank god!!

wvdek ... I'm sorry you had to deal with all that but I can say the Lord will bless you and your husband in many many ways :D God bless you!

That is sad about the preacher, but hopefully thru your actions, they will do better the next time. When I was a kid, my dad was a welder and every so often he would lose his job due to the oilfields. My mom didn't work at the time. I remember coming home from school and someone from our church had a truck load full of food for us. I thought it was so generous, especially since we were a family of 5. I never forgot that.

What a wonderful gift of love!!

Okay, I'm crying now. And I'm at work. Bless you! Bless you! bless you!

This is a tear-jerker! What a wonderful experience!

What is the Sale page? How do I find it?

Penny, God has created an opportunity for you to receive. You paid forward. Remember, what goes around comes around and it is coming back to you now. I pray you will continue to receive blessings in abundance for the blessings you have given to others.

I am so mad I wrote this whole thing out and then my page was gone. I will try this again if I can remember what I said the first time.

I could write a book on hardship, kindness and paying it forward. Our family had about a year where things were extremely tough and we had to rely on others for such things as food, paying bills, gas and other household items. It is hard to be humbled in such a way when you are used to having all that you need. At first I think we didn't want to admit that we were in need but when it got to the point where we couldn't buy food or pay the bills we had to find help somewhere. There was times that I didn't eat so the kids would have food. My DH worked evenings so he didn't really understand what was going on and when it hit him it really hurt cause he didn't feel like he was a provder for his family. When we finally asked for help it started coming out of the wood work. Not 1 single person wanted us to repay them in any way. So I have been paying it forward for years and will continue to do so for years to come.
Unfortunatley I have learned that there are people out there that only want a hand out that don't want to work and provide for themselves and then they selfishly complain or grip about what you did for them because it wasn't exactly what they wanted. I know that there are people that can't due to medical reasons so please don't get me wrong, I am more than happy to help those and those that are just down on their luck.
Now I owe you all a heart felt thank you because of what you all did for me and didn't even know it. Back in 2006 when I was Pregnant and losing my mind due to hormones going wacky I found the QB while searching the net for something to help me get control of things. I would sit for hours and read the QB and I would forget my problems and be able to relax. I couldn't quilt cause I couldn't sit and do it, didn't occupy me enough. I kept a dairy of that time and when I go back and read it I realize just how messed up I was and it scares me to think my family had to deal with that. So here is a big {{{{{{{HUG}}}}}}} and grateful thank you to all who allowed me into your quilting world even though you didn't know it. Paying it forward to me means that we are way better off now plus I enjoy it. But I would never keep track of how many times I received help, that doesn't matter what matters is that I will spend the rest of my life paying it forward again and again.

Amen!

It is the classifieds where members buy/ sell/ and trade items. Go to the quilting forum and scroll down til you come to it.

I had no idea that by my simply helping out with a few blocks would lead to so many great stories.

What great samples of "pay it fwd". I first heard the term from Oprah. She gave everybody in the audience $1,000 & were told to pay it fwd. Then later, she had those people report in on what they did. Great idea. Some surprisingly wonderful things happened.
Pat

i never knew what it was called till now thats sounds like a great idea

The last few posts on this thread made me think about paying it forward another way. I've always been pretty independent. If I couldn't do it, I could afford to pay someone or find a friend of a friend to do it for me. I prided myself on my ability to take care of myself and my daughter. Now that I'm 69 (how did that happen?) with all the limits aging causes, I'm finding myself accepting help a lot more. As much as I'd rather continue to be independent, I can't. BUT everytime someone helps me out, I'm helping them pay it forward. That's a huge gift for me to give them.

When you reach the point where you can gracefully and thankfully accept help, I think you have arrived at maturity. That is such a difficult thing to do for so many of us who were raised to be independent.

You all give me something to think about. I never thought of letting somebody help me as them paying it fwd. I have always been very independent, too, being a 20 yr. Navy wife. Since losing my husb. recently, I have neighbors who bawl me out for not letting people help me. I'm learning that I HAVE to. I ask lots of questions about how to do things but am learning to lighten up & let them help more. I know how good I feel when I help somebody else.

Pat G

Beautiful, beautiful!! :cry:

I've always been very independent, and now at age 69, find that I need help with some things. Dang! Where did I put my glasses this time?! Foe the first time EVER, I'm thinking about not putting in a garden.............. :?

My hubby and I often try to help someone who is hungry..we have all seen the fellow standing on the road with a sign that says "will work for food"....we go to the nearest drive thru and get them food,( like McDonalds or Subway) and take it back to them. That way, we know they have something to eat; its better than handing them money, which could be used for cigarettes, drugs, etc.

A few yrs. ago, I heard a discussion on TV about the people standing on corners "begging" for $. At the end of the talk it was said that we give to those people because it makes US feel good.
Next time I was out, I saw a 30ish looking woman on the corner begging for $. Since I was waiting for a red light to turn, I took $5 from my purse & handed it to her. She noticed the cappucino I had in my car. She said "oh, that looks so good. I think I'll go get me one". WHAAAAT? How can she afford that if she's so desperate for $. I wished I could reach out & take my $ back. That was my last time for that method of "paying it fwd.". So much for making me feel good. LOL

Pat

That is a very sweet story "crashnquilt" and I'm happy for you. Many times I wish I was more adventurous and less afraid. I think in that situation, I might have been fearful for my own personal welfare and might not have picked them up, but I thank God for people like you. However, I do try and be aware of people around me who might need a little help. We CAN change the world, one person at a time!