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167 Drivers 'Pay it Forward' at McDonald's on Father's Day

Holidays often have a special power to bring out the best in people. It's not uncommon to see a few headlines about random acts of kindness around Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Valentine's Day—but this recent example took place on Father's Day. At a McDonald's in southern Indiana, a regular customer in the drive-through lane noticed something behind her. "She saw a dad in the van behind her," said onlooker Hunter Hostetler. "He had like four kids in the car, he had a bunch of happy meals, two Quarter Pounders, a Big Mac meal and some other stuff. She was like, 'I'm going to pay for the father behind me, and I want you to tell him Happy Father's Day.'" However, touched by the kindness, the dad in turn decided to pay for a couple of cars behind him. Then it was ten cars, then twenty, and then over one hundred. From around 8:30pm to midnight on Father's Day, the "pay-it-forwards" kept coming, ending at 167 at the store's closing. "I thought it was pretty amazing," said Abby Smith, who was a customer at the McDonald's that night. "You don't see a lot of pay-it-forwards anymore."

Potential Preaching Angle: Generosity is in scarce quantity in this world, and even small doses of it often have an impact far deeper than one might think. If we do our best to imitate God's generosity to those around us, how quickly the world around us might change!

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