The day was thankful Thursday. It’s a weekly _______ that my two little girls and I began years ago. Thursday has become our day to go out and do a positive thing.

My girls shouted “McDonald’s, McDonald’s” as we _______ along a busy Houston road. Suddenly I realized that almost at every crossing I passed through stood a beggar. And then it hit me! All these beggars must be hungry, too. Perfect! After we ate, I ordered _______ lunches, and we set out to deliver them. We would _______ the meals to beggars one by one, and tell him or her that we hoped things got better.

We gave our final meal to a small woman and then headed back home. _______, the light caught us and we were stopped at the crossing where this woman stood. I was _______ and didn’t know quite how to behave.

She came to our car, “No one has ever done _______ like this for me before,” she said. “Feeling uneasy, I said.” “So, when do you think you’ll eat your lunch?”

She just looked at me with her tired eyes and said, “Oh honey, I’m not going to eat this lunch.” I didn’t understand, but _______ I could say anything, she continued, “You see. I have a little girl and she just loves McDonald’s, but I don’t have the money. But you know what? Tonight she is going to have McDonald’s!”

I don’t know if the kids _______ the tears in my eyes, so many times I had questioned whether our acts of kindness were too ________ or unimportant to really matter. Yet at that moment, I realized the truth of Mother Teresa’s words: “We cannot do great things — only small things with great love.”

It all started with a simple question: “Can I paint your portrait (肖像)?”

In the summer of 2015, Brian Peterson, an artist, had just moved to Santa Ana, California. Outside his apartment, a homeless man was often shouting on the street corner, sometimes keeping him ______ at night. Peterson, would pass the guy on his way to work, but they never spoke. What could they possibly have in common?

One day, Peterson was relaxing in his living room, reading the book Love Does, when he was interrupted by the homeless man outside. Encouraged by the book’s heart-warming message, Peterson made an unexpected decision: He was going to go out and _______ himself.

In that first conversation, Peterson learned that the man’s name was Matt Faris. He’d moved to California from Kentucky to realize his dream in music, but he soon _______ on hard times and ended up living on the street.

“It was the strangest thing to me,” Peterson recalled. “I saw _______ on the face of a man who hadn’t had a shower in close to a year since his story and the life inside of him encouraged me.” And Peterson asked Faris if he could paint his portrait. Faris said yes.

Peterson’s connection with Faris   __________   him to form Faces of Santa Ana, an organization focused on painting portraits of the unhoused. He sells the ________ , putting the money into a “love account” for his models. He then helps them use the money to get back on their feet.

Faris used the money from his portraits to record an album (专辑), fulfilling his musical dreams. Another subject, Kimberly Sondoval, used the money to support her daughter.

In the eight years since Faces of Santa Ana was founded, Peterson, has formed a new organization called Faces of Mankind, a group of artists who are creating portraits of people experiencing ______ around the country.

Peterson has painted 41 of these portraits himself. But there’s more to the finished products than the money they bring to someone who’s down and out.

“People often tell me, ‘I was the one that would cross the street. But I see homeless people ________ now, ’” Peterson says. “I didn’t know that would happen.”

【推荐3】I found the last outdoor table at my favorite cafe. Reading as I ate my breakfast slowly, I was     _____the cool wind and the warm sun when a table next to me opened up. A woman, who had been standing nearby, clearly waiting for a seat, stepped ______ the table. But from the other direction, straight from the parking lot, came a ______ who got to the table first.

The woman, with a smile on her face, explained that she’d been keeping her _____ on that table for several minutes and had been on her way over. The man, also smiling but determined, told her she was out of ______.

She stood off the side, clearly disappointed, and greeted her friend with the ______ news. I sat at my table, ______ the scene, and suddenly I realized that I had an opportunity to be kind.

I stood up and asked her to_______ to my table. Quietly, I told her I had seen what had happened, and I was   _____ to give her my table. I was only going to be there a few more minutes anyway, ______ I was glad for her and her friend to have the seat.

“But where will you sit?” she asked. I was ______ done eating, I said, and I would find a seat at the counter（柜台） inside. She thanked me and lighted up with ______ as she invited her friend to sit down.

Thinking about it as I finished up, I realized that whether or not the woman had acceptable demand for the table was _____ . The feeling of the situation—the look of hurt on her face—had struck me, and I _____   the ability to do something about it.

I just hope that woman’s morning at the cafe was great. I know ______ was.