Toilet Paper Service

Our church building is located between several beautiful homes in Mattoon.  The house immediately next door to the church, and the one we pass in front of each week before turning into the parking lot, was toilet papered last night.  The teenagers responsible did a thorough job and the homeowner was out front attempting to clean up the mess.  As we drove past, I thought, “We should be helping him!”  I mentioned it to Jeff, but I’m not sure he took me seriously since church was starting in 5 minutes.  I couldn’t shake the feeling so I said, “I’m going to help.”  Without another thought, I headed across his yard and was followed by 6 kids and Jeff.  I told the man, “You look like you could use some help!”  We proceeded to help him clean up his yard.  There were little bits of toilet paper that had been torn and scattered all over the sizeable yard.  It wasn’t a hard job, but would have taken quite a while if he’d had to do it alone.  It turns out he has a daughter who is a junior in High School and he said this toilet papering job was probably done in retaliation.  :)  Jeff asked him if this was the first time he’d ever been toilet papered.  He said, “I think this is the first time this year.”  Ha!  We managed to get everything up off the ground and a lot of it out of the trees, except for what we couldn’t reach.  We were there all of 10 minutes and walked into Sacrament meeting during the opening hymn.  I just felt so happy the whole time.  I was so glad the kids were helping.  I mean, isn’t that what we should be doing?  How many times have I thought, “That person looks like they could use some help,” and then continued on my way doing nothing for them?  Sure, it’s important to be at church, but if we aren’t living what we learn there, what’s the point?  We were able to do both today and it was a great experience.