This is a story, a story about how the smallest of actions can bring pure joy into someone's life.

Before I get into the story, there are a few things you need to know. My faith has been very strong. I've grown in my relationship with God so much in the past year, and it's been the most rewarding thing ever. One small part of that growing relationship has been a weekly bible study that I've been attending. Every Thursday morning is a little brighter thanks to these good talks and yummy doughnuts. Now, with that known, here's our story.

For about three Thursdays, there had been a father and his son in at about the same time we were. So we would sit drinking our coffee, eating our doughnuts, and praising the Lord, and he would sit with his son, sometimes listening, sometimes chatting. At the end of one session, he made the decision to come over and talk to us. He walked over and spoke six simple words, "Love what you guys are doing here". He then grabbed his son's hand and left the building. We couldn't believe that our small bible study could bring someone looking in so much joy. You can so easily affect someone and they're perspective without even trying to. At that time, we didn't think much of it, but it wasn't until the next week we realized how far a small gesture like that can go.

The next week as we walked in and began to push some tables together, the lady at the cash register informed us that someone had left twenty dollars for us to all get doughnuts. We assumed that the man had left it for us the week before, or someone had come in early that morning to give them the money. We girls were so overjoyed and were able to get a dozen doughnuts to share.

Then the session of the day began, and my good friend, Laura Clark, gave an amazing talk about being uncomfortable and open with your faith. Our faith is forever growing, and it's a beautiful thing so why not share it with the world.

Since we weren't expecting our doughnuts to be paid for, we all had leftover money. Instead of keeping the money, we pooled it together and gave it to the lady at the front. We told her to let it pay for as many people as possible. Then we asked if she could box up the leftover doughnuts so we could bring some to our teachers. Just before we walked out, some girls had the idea to ask the owners of the shop if they wanted to pray with us. They were reluctant at first but once we were all holding hands everyone was smiling. We thanked them again for letting us speak openly about our faith at their establishment every Thursday morning, and then we left. With this new outlook on the day, we wanted to be open and work to spread then same joy we felt to those around us.

A few other girls and I decided to take a doughnut to our world history teacher who always seemed a little iffy on the whole "God" thing. We walked out to the hallway where he was surrounded by a few other teachers. I handed him the doughnut with the words "have a blessed day. God loves you" written on the box. My friend Farrah then asked if we could pray with him. He kind of just looked at us, and then a teacher spoke up saying, "You can't do this during school hours". I looked him straight in the eye and said, "School doesn't start for another 15 minutes". The man didn't say anything, and our teacher stood up and walked us back to his room. We then all joined hands and he said, "This feels kind of like a cult". We all laughed and proceeded to thank God for blessing us with a teacher like him. After everything was said and done, he smiled and thanked us. Though a little uncomfortable it definitely paid off in the end. He may not have shown it at the time but later on, he informed us that his day really was looking up.

More leftover doughnuts were given to a few other teachers, and then we all headed our separate ways. The rest of the day was filled with small compliments and words of encouragement.

The moral of this story is that you never really know how much your small actions can change someone's day. A long and beautiful chain of events can lead to so many amazing things. Don't be shy and hide your faith from others. Be kind. Pay it forward.