|
|
|
|
Articles: My Thoughts | The simple hand that I have to offer
- Miss Anveshitha Anveshitha
| |
It was Sunday again and I could hear the coins clinking and clanking in the special can that the teacher had to collect money for needy people. I could tell it was getting heavy because the coins made a deeper sound as my classmates generously slid their coins through the slot. I proudly pulled two shiny quarters out of my coin purse and polished them on my skirt. Some of my friends recycled cans for the money that they brought and some took it out of their allowance, but every child brought what they could to help people in need. I was so proud to have fifty cents that week because I usually only brought a quarter. My teacher always told me that even a penny was a mitzvah and every little bit helped. As I dropped my coins into the can, I felt that I was doing my part and I smiled.
A mitzvah is like a simple random act of kindness, except there is nothing random about it. When I learned about what a mitzvah was, I was only five, and at that time, I didn’t realize the importance it would play in my life. In kindergarten I learned that collecting money to help hungry people is a mitzvah. A mitzvah is an action that a person performs to make our world a kinder, safer, and more humane place to live.
As I have grown older, I have come to understand mitzvahs in a different way. I want to feel that I am doing my part every day, not just on Sunday. My law of life has become performing acts of kindness every day. Not only do I want to do mitzvahs, but I want to do them wholeheartedly and with grace. I want to help people without making them feel indebted to me. I have come to realize that mitzvahs are not about solving world problems, mitzvahs are about simple things that I can do in my life. Simple things like smiling at someone who looks lonely, reaching cereal from the top shelf for an elderly woman in a store, or helping my little sister study cell structures until eleven o’clock at night are examples of mitzvahs.
In my life, I want to help people by being a special piece of today’s busy, complicated puzzle. Jewish tradition has stressed the importance of performing mitzvahs. I believe this is because acts of kindness lead to more acts of kindness. Mitzvahs seem to have the ripple effect because when I smile at someone, I often get a smile in return. When I do something kind for someone, they might pass the kindness on.
Although I have been taught the importance of mitzvahs, I have chosen to make kindness a standard of my life. Doing a simple mitzvah every day is not diffcult, in fact it has become second nature. These things that I choose to do are not intended to benefit me. While personal recognition and gratification are not the purpose of doing mitzvahs, I am somehow left with a feeling of self worth and enrichment as well.
An important expectation that I have for my life is to control what I do by my actions. I truly believe that doing a simple mitzvah for someone is an amazing way to find my personal identity. Performing mitzvahs allows me to become closer to the person that I strive to be so that I know that I am living to my full potential. I feel connected to who I truly am when I show love and kindness toward other people.
Mitzvahs are an integral part of my religion and more importantly, they are a standard that I have set to live by. Mitzvahs have shaped who I am and how I interact with the people around me. In first grade, I always felt inspired by the way that my mitzvahs affected people around me. Some of the warmest feelings that I have ever felt have come from mitzvahs. These simple acts of kindness have sculpted my heart. At night, when I turn out the light and climb into bed, I need to have a feeling of self respect for who I am and what I do. Without my law of life, I would feel empty and alone because to me, a helping hand connects me to a world that needs the simple hand that I have to offer.
| Be first to comment on this Article!
| |
|
|
|
 |
| Advertisements |
|
|
|
|
| Advertisements |
|
