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Some years ago, I was driving my daughter to a school event when a homeless woman came to my car window as I waited for a red light. She asked me for a dollar. I wanted to be a good example for my daughter, so I gave the woman five dollars.
Later, through my work with service organizations, I came to know many people who were homeless and in great financial need. And I realized that handing out money isn’t the best way to help them.
To be honest, for me, handing out money to panhandlers was a way to get rid of them and avoid dealing with them—and it made me feel generous and good! I finally realized that the Lord was not calling me to enable people to remain homeless but to show them respect and empower them in whatever way I could so that they would not be homeless and ignored any more.
The Gift of Attention. I saw my husband take a more personal approach one day, when a homeless man came up seeking a handout. “I won’t give you money,” my husband answered, “but…
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