Old Grouch

Old Grouch

A miserable heart means a miserable life; a cheerful heart fills the day with a song. Proverbs 15:15

I had a friend whom I use to call an old grouch, that what he was, he just complained about everything and everybody.

I would take about twelve kids to the ball game every Friday night and we would always stop at his service station to fill up with gas. Of course all the kids wanted change and few of them made any purchases.  He didn’t want to give them change and just fussed every time we stopped.  I got him over to the side one night and said, “Grouchy you see all those kids on that van?  Every one of them will be driving in three years and they will have their dad’s credit cards and will buy more gas than their parents.  I also know one place that they will never stop; right here.”

The next Friday night he came out to the van with a bag of changed and asked them if he could make change for anyone.  By the end of the season he said, “Preacher I started giving out change because I wanted their business  but you know they are so happy about it that it brings joy to my heart to be able to give them change, purchase or not.”

Ivan