This week’s Tiny Act of Kindness Tuesday is about how my daughter’s lemonade stand inspired me.
A couple of weeks ago, Abigail had some friends over, and it was hot outside.
Right now, our pool is waiting on a liner to be installed, so our usual summer plans are on hold. Originally, we decided to paint. Then, somewhere in the middle of the afternoon, I jokingly said, “I wish you were still little enough to want to do lemonade stands.”
Her eyes lit up.
She immediately started talking about the last lemonade stand she had when she was five years old. She remembered making money and having fun, and before I knew it, she had convinced her friends they needed a lemonade stand.
It was already after 1:00 p.m., and I had to send Robert to the store for lemonade mix.
I gently warned the girls that lemonade stands aren’t always successful on our road. We don’t live in the same close-knit neighborhood where Abigail spent her early childhood. Our homes are more spread out here, and there simply isn’t as much traffic.
But sometimes the fun isn’t in the selling.
Sometimes the fun is in the setting up.
Abigail found some rolled-up poster board in my craft area, and I taught the girls a little art trick for flattening curled paper. We dampened it, weighed it down with garden blocks, and left it to dry in the sun while we worked on the rest of the stand.
Then Abigail and I started shopping our own house.
The stand itself was an old white plant cart I normally use for rehabbing plants. I found a pink cardboard awning left over from a birthday party years ago. We added a lemon-themed tablecloth, a tip jar, some summer decorations, and a few lemon trees that usually sit elsewhere around the house.
Before long, what had started as random odds and ends looked like a real lemonade stand.
We mixed lemonade, made simple syrup for extra sweetness, and brought out my Ninja Slushi machine because, if I’m being honest, I use that thing almost every day during spring and summer.
The girls spent the afternoon making signs, arranging decorations, and getting everything just right.
And I loved every minute of it.
But the stand wasn’t my favorite part of the day.
The people were.
One of the girls looked at me at one point and said, “I don’t even care about the money. I just want a customer.”
I started praying for customers, but I know how spaced out the neighbors are here. But even if just one….
Because the girls weren’t trying to get rich. They wanted someone to stop. They wanted someone to see what they had created. They wanted to serve somebody. They wanted to share their excitement with the world.
And people did.
Car after car slowed down.
Neighbors stopped.
Strangers stopped.
Our neighbor sent her son and tagged everyone she knew from our area in a community post.
One man came back for a second cup.
Another handed the girls a twenty-dollar bill for two cups of lemonade.
Ironically, the girls weren’t the only ones who made new friends that day. After six years here, I left with two new phone numbers and a few neighbors I finally got the chance to meet.
I don’t think those adults realized what their kindness meant.
To them, it may have been a quick stop on a hot afternoon.
To those girls, it was everything.
It told them their effort was noticed and that creating something and putting it out into the world was worth doing.
I’ll be honest: I rarely carry cash anymore. But that afternoon changed the way I think about lemonade stands.
We often talk about wanting kids to stay out of trouble, work hard, and spend less time staring at screens.
That is exactly what these girls were doing.
They weren’t scrolling TikTok.
They weren’t texting.
They weren’t sitting inside playing video games.
They were outside in the Arkansas heat creating something together, hoping someone would stop and share in their excitement.
And so many people did.
Those cups of lemonade probably weren’t life-changing.
But the kindness those girls experienced was.
They’ve already started talking about their next lemonade stand.