Most parents teach their children life lessons and value systems in their early years. However, on some rare occasions, the parents learn from their children in unexpected ways. This is precisely what Justice Smith witnessed. The man was returning home from the dentist, accompanied by his 5-year-old son, Justus Mateo. The father-son duo saw a homeless man on the road anticipating pedestrians to give him monetary help.
Justice Smith wanted to help but did not have any cash with him. The gesture of his son, however, made him amazed and humbled. Justus Mateo immediately said he wanted to help the man with whatever he had in his pockets. He wanted to give that man 30 cents because that was the amount he had at that moment.
Smith wrote about the incident on his Facebook profile, saying: “I was more than happy he wanted to do this with joy (it means he’s been watching), BUT honestly, I was hesitant. I didn’t want to give this man, who needed all the help he could get, just 30 cents. But, unfortunately, my pride and thoughts of the homeless individual’s unknown reaction to receiving just two coins were standing in the way.”
Justus Mateo donated all the money he had, 30 cents, to the homeless man
The signal was about to turn green soon, so he rolled down the car windows and said to the homeless person: “I’m sorry, man, I don’t have any cash on me, but my son wants to give you everything he has right now. He just turned 5. And my God… The smile on that man’s face lit UP the intersection, and he said to Justus, ‘God bless you, little man! Thank you so much!’”
The boy was also happy to see the man smiling widely. The father was left with a sense of fulfillment and happiness, and the incident made his day, literally. Smith wrote that his little boy made him feel that help comes from the heart, and it is sincerity that matters.
The Facebook post of a 5-year-old giving all of his money to a homeless man did not go unnoticed, and people who read about the incident poured lavish praise on the kind-hearted child. The incident proves that children know how to act driven purely by kindness and overcome barriers that adults create in their minds.
Psychologists have always stressed the importance of parents setting up examples of good deeds for children. Noted psychologist Rachel Tomlinson, who wrote the book Teaching Children To Be Kind, supports this view. Quite often, prejudices and superficial values harbored by parents make them resist the children from doing acts of generosity and kindness. However, it is not necessary to make children feel judgemental. Children will not learn essential values unless parents rise above such prejudices and barriers.
