A vacationing businessman was walking along a beach when he saw a young boy. Along the shore were many starfish that had been washed up by the tide and were sure to die before the tide returned. The boy was walking slowly along the shore and occasionally reached down and tossed the beached starfish back into the ocean.

The businessman, hoping to teach the boy a little lesson in common sense, walked up to the boy and said, “I have been watching what you are doing, son. You have a good heart, and I know you mean well, but do you realize how many beaches there are around here and how many starfish are dying on every beach every day. Surely such an industrious and kind hearted boy such as yourself could find something better to do with your time. Do you really think that what you are doing is going to make a difference?”

The boy looked up at the man, and then he looked down at a starfish by his feet. He picked up the starfish, and as he gently tossed it back into the ocean, he said, “It makes a difference to that one.”

Sometimes we wonder if the effort on our part to change a life makes a difference. If we’re not a TV talk show host with millions of viewers or a missionary with large groups of people to minister to or a famous star with a following that will donate to the latest “save the ________(fill in the blank)” cause, we may feel inadequate to make a difference in our world.

But I believe God gives each of us the opportunity to serve the great or small, the one or many.

Sometimes our stranded starfish is a fatherless child. Possibly you have a co-worker that just needs a willing ear to listen to them. Maybe it’s a homebound friend. Perhaps your own child simply needs a moment of face time with mom or dad in the lonely world of being a teen.

Has God placed a stranded starfish on your beach? Make the difference to that ONE!

“And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to Me!” (Matthew 25:40).

I’m enjoying spending an evening with one of my children tonight. They make a difference in my life—may I make a difference in their life!  —submitted by Kathy Lonsinger, Speaker and Founder A Gentle Answer Ministries