Earlier today my friend and I went to breakfast. When we parked the car, a young man approached us asking for money for food. At first, we both hesitated and then I thought to myself here I am about to go have a nice meal without any stress and here is this man having to ask for a few dollars to simply survive. I gave the man my tips from my last shift, he was kind and gracious and went about his day.
This got me thinking about the reactions many people have when approached by homeless people for money. Often you hear people say they're just going to spend the money on drugs or alcohol, or, "Why don't they go get a job?" While most of us will never know what the people that we give our money to will spend it on that doesn't mean we shouldn't help them. We should still help these people in whatever way we can with good intentions and hope that they spend that money on what they need most no matter what that is.
Not to say that we need to give money to every homeless person ever, but as fellow people, we should give them what we can. Whether it be time, finding them a place to stay, food or just someone to listen. We're all people who have been through different things, but one thing I think we can all agree on is that sometimes life can be hard and if we can help make someone a little less hard we should. Most of the people we see asking for help didn't ever plan on being in that position. It could happen to any of us at any time and we would hope that someone would take the time to listen.
