Extreme Makeover: Home Edition-A New Life for a Special Family

I was watching Extreme Makeover: Home Edition last night on ABC as Ty Pennington helped to create a new life for a special, well-deserved family. The family consisted of the mother and father and two children. The father was a firefighter who was involved in an accident causing him to have memory loss. The mother is a massage therapist who carried the weight of staying employed and maintaining a healthy and happy family in the midst of helping her husband with his medication and trying to pay off a mound of never ending bills. The family was in debt but trying to keep a positive attitude while they could not afford to pay their bills and had a car that was constantly breaking down. They lived in a mobile home that was on wheels and the home was falling apart at the seams.

Pennington sent the family on vacation and they went to work building them a new home with the help of country music singer Clint Black. The family returned home from vacation to find a brand new house waiting for them. It was beautiful and there was one room dedicated to the mother's massage business. This room was like no other with leaves printed on the walls and a very Zen atmosphere. The mother could now work from home and take better care of her family. Pennington also gave them a brand new car while Sears paid off their debt.

Why am I going into such detail about this one TV show? This show was one of the best inventions in television entertainment. It teaches people to care again about the welfare of others. This is what the world needs now perhaps now more than ever before. Our economy is in shambles and people are stressed out because they are constantly trying to make ends meet and have enough money left for dinner at the end of the day. If there was ever a time to go back to basics, that time is now.

We need to stop cutting each other off on the highway and beeping at the person in front of us the second the traffic light turns green. Take a breath and remember what the truly important things are in life. Maybe that is lesson we are meant to learn during these difficult times. Many of us are in the same boat, trying to our best to stay afloat. The person behind you in line at the grocery store probably has the same worries running through her mind while she waits. Say hi to that person because it will probably be the best thing that happened to her all day.

Many of us have gone without plenty of things that we "had to have" in the past like brand name clothes, new decorations for our home and dining out once a week. Guess what? We're still alive and we're thriving. Many of the important things in life come from the relationships we have with other people in our family, with close friends and at work. Having someone to talk to at the end of your day that cares about what you have to say is priceless. Picking up and hugging your child after a rough day is wonderful therapy. Giving help to those in need when you can afford it is noble.

Why are people more apt to give money to high school kids on the street asking for donations for their sports team than they are to a person dressed in rags with a cardboard sign and one leg who is homeless? This is the question my husband popped up with over the weekend. I couldn't answer it.

I was able to order dinner out for the family Friday night. We were driving down the exit ramp from the highway and came to a stop at a traffic light. There was a man standing there with a cardboard sign stating that he is homeless and in need of money. I don't have extra money but I had enough to eat out that night so, in my mind, I had enough money to at least give this guy some change. I grabbed the change out of my car door pocket and handed it to him through the window and he was grateful for that little bit of money but honestly I think it was the fact that I wanted to give it to him that made him the happiest. He was most likely out there all day waiting for someone to lend a helping hand, in the mean time, publicly humiliating himself. This pocket change may seem like nothing to those of you who have never known what it's like to try to hold your life together financially, but when your going through difficult times everything counts. You realize that the important things in life are the simplest things.

If you live a comfortable life financially I feel it's your responsibility as a human being to give a small portion of your earnings to a charitable cause of your choice. You will feel great about yourself and you will be helping people in need. This is the reason why I like Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. They could have created another flashy game show where they give away a million dollars but they didn't. They use their budget to help people build a new life and they remind us who we are again as people.