A Good Reminder

This past Christmas season, I was hoping to be able to serve and help in small ways and praying for the opportunity. One morning I was at Walmart with Pierce buying mostly non-essential items for Christmas and found myself standing in line behind a woman and a toddler who was very concerned about the price of her purchases. She was watching the total with cash in hand and correcting the clerk when anything was entered incorrectly. Almost everything in her cart seemed essential.

When the cashier presented the total, it was more than the woman expected and she began to look through her cart to see what she didn't really need that could get her total to what she was expecting. I told the woman that I was happy to cover the difference. She protested saying it was too much and I insisted. I ended up paying about $6 so she could get everything she needed. She was incredibly grateful and a little embarrassed and I was grateful to be able to help.

The tender mercy that was really shown to me was that as I walked out to the car, I was reminded that only a few years ago, that lady was me. When we were in school, that was exactly how I did my grocery shopping, watching every penny, shopping sales, buying only essentials for our little family. I was given the chance to reflect on not only how blessed we had been during that time of our life to make it through grad school with 4 kids, but also how far we had come in such a short time.

It is so easy to get wrapped up in all the things we don't have or feel like we need during the holiday season, but in that line at Walmart, I was reminded of everything I already had and was able to take a few moments to be truly grateful for all the monetary and spiritual blessings in my life.