Dirty Tables at McDonald's

It's happens to all of us. We go out to eat at a fast food joint, pull up to the table, but it's dirty. We shake our head, grab our fries and grease burger, and proceed to try to find a table suitable for eating at.

There are bigger problems in the world (famine, war, etc), but dirty tables at McDonald's has to be somewhere near the top of that list. When I was coaching basketball I used to always make my team clean the table up when we left. I make my own kids do the same thing. I make sure they pick up all of their trash AND wipe the table off with a napkin.

Why do I do this?

I just think it's important that you leave something better than you found it. When my team pulled in the parking lot, I know what that manager was thinking... "Oh Lord, here comes a bus full of bad kids. They're going to be loud and rude, and they're going to make a huge mess."

I get it. Taking orders from 29 kids on a bus, who all order something different, it can't be a fun ordeal. This is especially true near the end of the night, when the night shift is getting ready to clean up and go home, and right about when the bus usually pulled in after a basketball game.

Those workers, tired and ready to go home, aren't on their "A Game." Those kids, excited and hungry, aren't the most patient bunch in the world. So I always drilled my team - when we get up to leave, pick up ALL of your trash and wipe off the table. Leave this place cleaner than we found it.

Here is the moral of the story... I hope this lesson followed my players, and my own children, as they ventured off into "the real world." There is something to be said for leaving something better than you found it. Because life never stands still and is ever changing. We're always in some state of constant transition, day to day, week to week, and year to year.

It's one of the only constants in life. Seasons change. Some things come and go. Life moves on. So when that happens to you, leave it better than you found it.

Those are words to live by. Thanks for reading. #JWT