Last night I had to run to the grocerry store to pick up ingredients for dinner.

I’m not going to lie…part of me saw it as an opportunty to hit Starbucks before I went into the grocery store and pick up my favorite holiday drink- a delicious hot chocolate.

I could see myself sipping on and enjoying my hot chocolate as I casually strolled through the supermarket with no children tugging at me, yelling, or tattling on a sibling.

So I pulled into the parking lot I parked between the two stores making the logistics of the trip a little bit easier, and I could already begin to taste the drink in my mouth!

I walked into Starbucks and boy were they crowded! 

I had to wait in line to order and pick up my hot chocolate, about 10 mins altogether.

After I got my hot chocolate I began my walk across the parking lot thinking to myself the whole time how nice and warm my hot chocolate felt in my hands and how it was such a great idea to get one for myself because it kept me a little warm!

As I approached the entrance to the store I heard the familiar ringing of the Salvation Army bell that had been ringing outside of our market the whole week.

I held my hot chocolate between my hands to keep them warm, but I still hadn’t taken a sip because I was afraid it was still too hot.

Just then a feeling came across me.

There was an energy between the SA volunteer and myself, an energy that I couldn’t ignore.

As much as I was looking forward to sipping on my delicious, creamy Starbucks hot chocolate and as thankful that I was for it keeping me warm while walking across the parking lot that was nothing in comparison to the SA lady who had been standing outside of our store for who knows how long that day.

The same lady had been outside every other day this week too.

She was there when I went in the morning, and was still there when I went in the evening.

As I walked up to that entrance something told me to give her my hot chocolate.

She was much colder than I was, for sure.

So as I approached her I felt something pulling me towards her-I even walked a little bit past her and had to backtrack to her spot.

I went up to her and asked her if she liked hot chocolate…., “Oh of course I do, it’s my favorite” was her reply.

I handed her my piping hot chocolate and told her, “Here this is for you, enjoy and Merry Christmas!”

She replied with a thank you and one of the biggest smiles I have ever seen in my entire life.

Now, I had no idea that I was going to be doing this last night.

Not before I pulled into the parking lot, not while ordering my drink, and not even while walking up to the entrance of the store.

I was planning on enjoying that hot chocolate during my child-less super market trip.

I was drooling over the thought of actually enjoying an entire hot drink by myself, but somewhere along the way I felt like I was supposed to give my drink to the lady standing in the cold.

After my good deed last night something stirred inside of me…

Was it ironic that it was December 1st and I did a good deed to make someone else feel better, and there were 24 more days until Christmas?

Or that I sacrificed my own want and desire to better someone else?

Was I supposed to do an act of kindness each day until Christmas?

Yes it was a small, small act of giving back but I am forever grateful that I acted on that feeling!

Here is what I am proposing friends…

In the spirit of Christmas and to celebrate the {reason for the season, ie Him who was the ultimate gift to us}  

instead of doing a countdown to Christmas~ 25 of Christmas~ which consists of watching Holiday TV programs, and all things materialistic …

I want to do

 ~25 Days of Giving~ which focus’s on helping others, and making another person’s day just a little bit brighter.

25 days of doing a random act of kindness for a stranger each day, going out of our way to help a friend or a family member, or volunteering our time.

I’m going to do this either way, but I thought to myself how awesome would it be if we could get a group of us together-from the blogging community, OR just friends and family- to spread the word about this event.

Everything is always better with more people right?

And the end result is we will be able to bless MORE people if we get MORE people to join in this event.

However you propose to get in your daily act of kindness will be just fine…

It can be something as simple as buying a hot chocolate for someone working outside in the cold, saying a prayer for someone you pass on the street, or volunteering your time at a homeless shelter.

Whatever has been laid on your heart will do.

There are no right or wrong ways to give back

I would love it if you could join me in this 25 Days of Giving.

So what do you say?

Wanna join me? 

If you want to join me please leave a comment below or email me: treslittlebirds3 {at} gmail {dot}com and we can get this party started!

 

 

I recently heard a song that has a lyric, 

“What if the trials of this life are our mercies in disguise?”

This line really struck a chord with me.

It got the wheels a turnin’ and made me think…

How many times have I been through a trial that was hard, rough, and tested me more than I thought I could handle?

The answer: A  LOT!

In my 27 years of life I have probable been through more than most 60 years olds-and that is no joke!

What I used to call “ironic” now has a new meaning.

All of the hidden meanings, answers, and where will I go next’s have been answered by Him….

whether I chose to believe it or not.

Before I found my way I thought it was the universe aligning, or things going my way type of stuff but these days I believe in Him!!

When I thought about it, all the trials I have been through have eventually led me to help others in one way or another.

Whether it was a personal issue someone had never dealt with before, applying for financial aid for school, learning how to potty train their child, figuring out how to rent an apartment or set up their utilities {no matter how big or small} I was finding that I had a lot of experience under my belt in such a short life…

and these experiences were allowing me to help others in ways I never thought possible!

Then one day it hit me-WHAM- like a ton of bricks!

I have been put through all of these trials because now I can help others who are standing where I once stood.

That is an amazing, incredible feeling.

These are my person mercy ministries. 

I can give others the hope that they will get through what it is they are facing, especially when they feel like there is no light at the end of the tunnel.

I can give them tips and tricks to help these trials not be as hard on them as they were on me.

On the opposite side of this it has allowed me to open myself to others and see if they have been through a trial I am facing.

I have become more receptive to any input or advice to help me get through that they may have for me.

And you know what?

Most of the time they have been where I have stood before, and are more than willing to share their experience to help me. 

I think at this point it is no surprise that I like helping others.
I feel like I was born with a servant’s heart.

I can’t help it, it’s something that I really, truly, and genuinely enjoy.

I get such a natural high and good feeling from helping others.

Most days I wish I didn’t have a 40 hour work week because I look forward to the day when I can volunteer all of my time to those in need.

So think about that next time you are going through a trial.

Next time you are being tested stop and think to youself that when you come out on the other side of that trial you will be able to help someone who once stood where you are.

And these trials my friends are His mercies in disguise!

Linking up here:

I feel like every Novemeber all of the ‘Thankful elves’ come out and remind people to be constantly thankful.

We see all the thankfulness via social media these days, and while that is great I feel like people focus so much on being Thankful during this one time each year they forget to be thankful the rest of the year.

The month of November has so much hype surrounding it with people constantly saying what they are thankful for…obviously because of Thanksgiving.

 I finally sat down this Thanksgiving and tried to see what all the buzz was about this holiday that was marked on a calendar on a specific date. 

My purpose of this post isn’t to be a bahumbug, but rather hopefully stir some ideas inside of you…so keep reading!

Why limit our thankfulness to just one day?

 Why do we put such an emphasis on this one month, why stop there? 

Let’s treat every day as though it’s Thanksgiving.

Why are we purposefully thankful only one month a year, and specifically one day during said month?

 Why is it that we only make our best attempt to get together with our entire family once a year? 

Time is a precious thing we shouldn’t waste!

We all know the goodness we feel once we are together with our family. 

 As we gather around dressed in our Thanksgiving best we enjoy the laughing, the bonding, the game playing and catching up that happen.

These moments are priceless. 

 Wouldn’t it be nice to have those feelings twice a year, once a month, or even once a week?

 I know the hustle and bustle of our lives together with everybody’s location makes it hard to get our entire family’s together- or at least most of our families- more than once a year. 

But what is stopping us from trying, really really trying our darn hardest to gather with family and friends more often?

Instead of only being purposefully thankful once or twice a year,  lets be purposeful everyday. 

Lets make more of an attempt to gather with our friends and loved ones more often. 

Let’s be intentionally thankful every day!

 What do you think?

Maybe you think I’m crazy or taking a “grinch” approach to this holiday but I really just want everyone to be thankful for something every day.

Plain and simple.

Thankfulness all day ‘ery day 😉

 Have you ever sat back and asked yourself why we conform to the calendar holiday of Thanksgiving rather than being blatantly, purposefully, and intentionally thankful every.single.day of our lives? 

Seriously, think about it for a minute…

Well our weekend was jam packed as is usual these days!

We started with Thanksgiving and having a bunch of family in town.

Our tradition has changed in the past few years due to family additions, workplace changes, etc.

This year we headed down to my aunt’s to spend the holiday with my family.

My parents, and brother and sister started coming down from Massachusetts a few years ago so we were able to enjoy their company.

We haven’t spent Thanksgiving with my family in about 7 years-usually my in-laws get this holiday

Any-who other than a slight mishap of hubby taking my keys with him to work that day the rest of the holiday went off without a hitch.

There was plenty of family, food, and fun.

Oh, and some black Friday shopping too!

This was the first year in quite a few years I accompanied hubby for black Friday shopping and thanks to a certain cousin and my brother we pretty much had family spread throughout the store in all the main spots we needed to hit!

Needless to say we made out well and completely sacrificed the meaning of Thanksgiving in order to get our kids the most with our money this year, HA!

The next day was spent back down with that same family so our kids could enjoy soak up all the time with all their family that we don’t get to see nearly as often as we’d like.

Luckily the weather was phenomenal-like near 60-all weekend so there was lots of time to play outside!

Friday night I had a mini girls night with a dear old girlfriend who I have been through just about everything with…and I mean everything!

It was so refreshing and nice to have a conversation about us, and our lives rather than our jobs, and my kids lol!

I mean I love my kids with every fiber of my being but it was nice to have someone ask how I am doing, how I’m feeling and how I’m dealing with all these lifestyle changes for a change…ya know?

She’s an oldie but a goodie and I wouldn’t change that for anything!

Saturday we enjoyed a lazy day of lounging around the house and I even convinced our older two boys to lay down in their beds for a few minutes and they actually fell asleep!

Oh it was precious and much needed 🙂

Today hubby let me sleep till 10:30.

I’ll repeat that one for ya, I slept until 10:30 this morning!!!!!

Unfortuantely we missed church but boy oh boy was it glorious sleeping in that late!

And I must have needed it because I usually can’t sleep past 8 am these days, my mind just won’t let me!

We ventured out early this afternoon and scored some sweet cellphone & ipod covers at 5 below {I always forget how much that store rocks}as well as some much needed k-cup refills from Target 🙂

This evening was spent putting up and decorating our Christmas tree.

Usually we put it up Black Friday but we slacked a little bit this year-woops!

Oh and another milestone I reached this weekend post-stroke was being able to go to the grocery store {with our youngest in tow} and yes I drove myself there and back!!

Now this is an everyday task for many of you out there and it used to be for me as well,

but little errands like this that I used to be able to do without even thinking about twice now take my full attention and complete planning ahead of time.

This is something I have not been able to do for 4 months, and today I accomplished-without panicking, without calling home 5 times to ask my husband if I forgot anything, and with one kid! 

Sure he ate 1/2 a bag of cheese curls by the time we were finished and his mouth matched the color of his coat but what we finished!!!

I am so thankful to be here for another holiday season with my family.

That about wraps up our weekend, how was yours?

 

 

Forgiveness is a hard, hard quality to master.
I know this too well.
In my 27 years of life it is probably the single hardest quality to embed in my life.
Every day I spend countless minutes and hours teaching our children about forgiveness.
I want them to know that it is good and right to forgive each other-always.
I want them to know that it is never okay to be malicious, keep a grudge, or to be express hate towards one another.
Even though they are still young and the forgiveness they are working on is learning to forgive their brothers when they do something they don’t like, it is still a lesson.
They are still learning to forgive, and let go.
They need to learn how it feels to forgive someone for the wrongness they did.
They also need to learn to step up and ask their brother or friend for forgiveness if they were the wrongdoer.
Forgiveness is a two way street, my friends.
Incredible things have been happening with my heart lately.

It has been moved in a ways and transformed in only ways the Lord could be responsible for.

Recently I’ve decided to make a life changing decision to forgive someone very near to me.

It’s time to let this burden go, and start fresh.

The bible tells us we need to forgive.

Plain and simple.

We are not to hold grudges, bare hatred, gossip about, or wish evil upon others.

I could go on and on quoting passages referring to these but today I will spare you…

Maybe if this is something you are struggling with you can look up the passages on your time and let them work on you in their own ways.
Each week I stand in church and recite the Lord’s prayer, “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
Hello!
I have been so blind! 

This is a HUGE and I mean HUGE burden lifted off of my shoulders.
This is something I have struggled with for the past few years, and I am ready to be done with this bitterness.

This forgiveness is not just for me, but for my children.

The grudge that I was continuing to hold was hurting them too and that was not fair. 

Helping me realize this forgiveness needed to happen was one of my husband’s aunts.

The other day I received a phone call from my husband’s aunt.
A call about being intentional, and it could not have come at a better time.
She called me to tell me that while she was driving her car running errands that day she began thinking about our relationship and she started to get teary-eyed.

She was so thankful that God had put us together in this family and that we share so many similarities both as adults and in our childhood.
Some good, and some not so good.
But they are both a blessing because they have brought us that much closer together.
Both of us married into this family, and we are forever grateful for that.
In just a few short years-8 to be exact- our relationship has blossomed in ways I never knew possible.

She wanted me to know how much she appreciated me.

She wanted me to know how grateful she is that we have the relationship we do.

She wanted me to know how happy she is that we were able to openly talk about topics with one another that we struggle with and that she is able to counsel me through some of those.
She wanted me to know that she is thankful we were able to share and develop our faith with one another. 

She wanted me to know all of this because we need to be intentional with others, especially those we care about and love.

We need to let them know how we feel when we feel it.
Don’t just let those thoughts and emotions stay tucked inside of your head and your heart, express them and share them with others.
Bless others so that you too may be blessed!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it a million times again…

We need to be intentional every.single.day.

Intentional with our kids, with our husbands, with our family, with our friends, with our church family, with everyone.

We need to let them know the love that we have for them…so they may feel loved.

The gratefulness we feel for them being in our lives….so they may feel grateful.

And as I was on the phone with her I felt that nudge telling me this was my opportunity to let her know how I felt as well.
I wasn’t to let this moment pass.
I told her that God really knew what he was doing when he put me into this family.
I had no idea the treasure that lay ahead of me when I first started dating my now husband.
Yes I knew he was a great, gentle, caring guy who wasn’t afraid to express his emotions but I could never have imagined the kind of family he was raised up in,
and the morals and values he learned growing up.
The same core values that are the center of his entire family.
Not just his immediate family, but the whole family.
The same morals and values that we are impressing upon our own children.
Morals that family always comes first-always.
Values that will allow our boys to grow up to be respectable young men and know right from wrong.
Morals that allow them to share and express their emotions and have the perseverance to work through all situations-the good and the bad.
Values that let them know that they can always come to us about anything,  at any age without fear of being ridiculed or embarrassed. 
Growing up I always knew I wanted a fully functioning, open, caring, loving, family.
A family that put eachother first before all activities, friends, and habits.
A family that was so strong at its core that nothing could shake it.
And that is exactly what I got.
For that I could not be more thankful.
I went on to tell her that from the moment my husband introduced us I knew there was something special between us.
I would never have thought our relationship would have blossomed into the relationship we have today.
I told her how I cherish our closeness, our ability to pick the other one up, our openess with one another, and her ability to make me not feel like an outcast.
I told her how I look up to her raising her 4 boys with more than enough patience, and love day in and day out.
By the end of the phone call we were both in tears and laughing at how big of blubbering babies we both had become.
Of course they were joyful tears!
But the point is we were intentional that day.
We both made the effort and made sure that we knew how the other one felt.
Honestly I couldn’t tell you the last time I have done that-with anyone!
It was genuinely nice, and refreshing to be able to tell someone how much they mean to you.
In today’s world it is so easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of the fast paced world that we tend to let those deep feelings and emotions fall to the wayside.
Instant gratification has become the new demand.
So today I challenge you to be intentional in all that you do.
Not just for today, but every.single.time you see the opportunity come up.
I guarantee the feelings you have afterwards will be some of the best feeling you ever experience!

Originally I sat down and began writing this post on Monday morning…and am just now getting to posting it on Wednesday-FAIL!
In the midst of writing this Mr. Three came down with an allergic reaction to something he ate and landed him in the ER for 7 hours all while I was still determined to potty train our 2 year old which I began this weekend.
Needless to say the week has gotten away with me whilst being filled with turkeys, allergic reactions, basketball try-outs, and potty training 🙂
Oh and two Harvest parties at school today!
Gobble Gobble!

**************************************************************************

Have you all heard that Thanksgiving is around the corner?

Something about turkey’s, family, and being thankful for what we have?

I think it’s this Thursday 🙂

Okay, the jig’s up…joke time is ova!!

So if you read this post you know that last week I set out to raise money and turkey’s for our local salvation army.

I found out about this need on Wednesday so I didn’t have much time to get things moving, I had to get started quickly!

Let me tell you what- if I didn’t know the impact social media had on people I certainly do know now!

Donations started to come in on Wednesday and just stopped late last night 🙂

On Saturday my husband -who hadn’t asked any questions about my wanting to do this so far-asked me where we were planning on putting all of these turkey’s we were going to buy.

At first we had enough money for around 20-25 turkeys from Shoprite.

I just shrugged my shoulders and said to him, “I have no idea.  God has told me that we are supposed to do this so I’m going to trust in his plan and let him open the doors for me.”

Hubby has gotten used to this crazy new me so he just shrugged his shoulders and went about his business.  

At church on Sunday I made an announcement after service and that allowed us to receive more monetary donations from people last minute.

Then on Sunday a local restaurant, W.L. Goodfellows, contacted me via Facebook me telling me they had 4 turkeys for me to come pick up.

My first thought was woohoo, 4 more turkeys!!

I then texted my husband telling him how crazy it was that a local restaurant knew what we were doing and wanted to help…wow!

That’s when I knew He had a greater plan for this than I could ever have imagined 🙂

When I got there I spoke to one of the owners named Jim.

During our conversation he mentioned that they purchased their turkey’s at our local Costco because the price was amazing.

As soon as he said that the gears in my mind started turning.

I wanted to get the most bang for my buck…or turkey– same thing!

As soon as I came home I began counting all of the cash we had collected from last week through yesterday and it was waaaay more than I thought!

That combined with what out of town family, friends, and strangers donated via PayPal brought us to $575!!!

I immediately called Costco to see if they would be willing to waive the member fee, because we’re not members, in order to help us help the Salvation Army.

I hit a road block- WHAM!

As much as they wanted to help they were only willing to give me 15 turkey’s because they had to save some for their club members.

I was determined to get the best deal on turkey’s and was not going to let this stop me.

Next call? BJ’s.

We’re members at BJ’s and when I called to ask if they would be willing to help us out they told us that there was a limit of 5 turkey’s per family…even though we were trying to help out the Salvation Army.

Road block #2-WHAM but I was determined to see this thing through!

Remember the restaurant that donated 4 turkeys and told me about the great deal on turkey’s at Costco, W.L. Goodfellows?

In the midst of all my road blocks the owners contacted me saying they would love to let me use their membership at Costco to purchase turkeys!!

I turned to my husband and said, “Another door was just opened.  The restaurant wants to let us use their membership to buy all the turkeys!”

Within 15 minutes I was on my way to Costco with the restaurant owner.

The owner who had never met me, didn’t know why I was going all of this, and was willing to drive 30 minutes each way  to help us feed hungry people!

When we got there we each grabbed a cart and literally filled the entire thing with turkey’s!!

Let me tell you how hard it was to steer a cart filled with 30 some frozen turkey’s, but man was it worth it!

As we made our way through the crowded store people stopped to tell us what a good thing we were doing, smiled at us from afar, we even got a few thumbs up too!

Man it felt GREAT to be able to do this!

I came home with 45 turkey’s from Costco!!!!

But it didn’t stop there…oh no it did. not!

Later that night I left my house 3 times to pick up various items and each time there was somebody outside with a turkey!

We filled up two refrigerators and freezers with turkeys and because the weather was so cold we left the rest in my trunk covered in ice!

We were able to raise $845 and had 9 turkeys dropped off.
This event was so much bigger than I could have ever imagined, and for that I am grateful!

All together we dropped off 61 turkeys to the Salvation Army, plus a last minute cash donation of $150!!!

I spoke with Captain Stevenson at the Salvation Army and they were able to fulfill their need to feed 498 families which will include 837 adults, and 654 children.
How amazing!!!

Do you know how many lives have been touched this Thanksgiving?
All of this was possible because people chose to come together for the greater good.

That’s 1,491 smiles we were able to help put on people’s faces this Thanksgiving!
That’s 61 more families that were able to give their families a Thanksgiving that they prayed for.
My heart was changed in ways I never knew possible this weekend, and definitely for the better.
My faith grew larger than I knew it could this weekend.
My relationship with the Lord became stronger.
My ability to pray was really stretched beyond what I knew, to a place where I want to be always.
I will be forever humbled and truth be told helping these people did more good for me than they will ever know.
The Salvation Army now holds a special piece of my heart.
Things we take so easily for granted are really hard for some families these days.
So do me a favor treat each day as a gift, give when you can, and always keep those who are less fortunate in your prayers.
Sometimes others just need a little help, wouldn’t it be great if you were the one to help them? 

Turkey’s Turkey’s everywhere…at least that is what I am praying for.

Before you think I’m completely crazy let me explain…

Last night our local news did a story about the Bridgeton NJ Salvation Army.

You can view the segment here.

  Each year for Thanksgiving the Salvation Army provides turkey’s to families in need. 

 This year they are in need of nearly 500 turkeys and only have received 200 donations.  

This story, these families, and their need have been laid on my heart 

and I am feeling the need to help in a BIG way.  

300 more turkey’s are needed to fill their goal and feed all of the families signed up this year.

Hubby and I decided to put a call out to our friends and family via social media…

Twitter //  Facebook // Blogger, etc. 

We are asking for either monetary donations to purchase turkeys which will be dropped off to the location in Bridgeton or drop off a turkey to our house and we will drive them to the Salvation Army site!

Anything at all will help, even $1, or $5 🙂

 If you live out of town and would still like to donate feel free to donate via Paypal to my account directly surfby57 {at}yahoo {dot}com.

We’ve already had quite a few donations through Paypal from friends who live out of town!

 All monies received will go directly to helping out these families in need!

 We will be driving these turkey’s directly to the Salvation Army in Bridgeton on Monday morning to be distributed that afternoon! 

 Thank you and God Bless! 

Yesterday I took our older two boys to the store to pack up our Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes.

Every year our church participates in this program that is run through Samaritan’s Purse.  

It is a wonderful program and as our boys get a little older each year they start to understand a little more about having a giving heart.

This year it was adorable to watch them go through the store and pick out toys, pencils, coloring books, etc for what they were calling their “buddies.”
And our 4 year old felt it necessary to kiss everything before he put it in the basket because he wanted his buddy to know he loved him.

Oh how it melted my heart!

Don’t get me wrong they still tried to sneak in toys for themselves but after a couple friendly reminders that we were there to shop for little boys/girls that weren’t able to have a Christmas like we do they caught on!

So up to the register’s we went to pay for our goodies and I noticed that in front of us was a family.  

There was a mom, dad, and their daughter who was probably about 6 or 7.

As they went to go pay for their groceries ( I hadn’t noticed what they purchased) the cashier told them that they don’t accept the form of payment they were trying to pay with.

The mom and dad gave each other a look and told the cashier they would run home to get cash and be right back to pay for the groceries.

They asked if they could please leave the groceries and come back in a few minutes.

So they left their cart at the end of the check out while the dad ran to the car to drive home and the mom and daughter waited outside of the store for him to come back.

I paid for all of our toys for our shoe boxes, the boys got their gumballs out of the machines, and we headed to our car.

On the way back to the car something nudged me.

A feeling came over me telling me that I was in that store at the time for a reason.

I had noticed the family as soon as I walked in the store, and through a couple of aisles we were in but never thought twice.

That’s when I knew it was Him telling me to do something about this.

It was Him telling me that I was able and that I was to pay for their groceries.

I shook my head in disbelief and kept walking to my car with my kids.

People were going to think I was crazy, plus I didn’t even know the family.

As I got to the car I opened the door and looked at the inside of the car we were driving.

Again, I stopped and listened.

My kids had clean name brand clothing, car seats to protect them, smiles on their faces, I was driving a state of the art car to keep our family safe, and I had just piled in three bags of toys to give to those who were in need.

Why stop our giving at just the shoe boxes to fill?

For a long time I have been trying to teach our children about the importance of always giving, even when it seems like you don’t have much to give, or even though it may seem silly.

It is important, and it is what God tells us, as Christians, we need to do.

So I took out my cell phone and I immediately called my husband.  

In the shakiest voice ever I said to him, “I have something to ask you…I feel like I need to do something. There was a family in front of us that could not pay for their groceries and I would like to pay for them. Is that okay?”

Without hesitation he said, “Pay for them.”

I took both kids back out of the car, walked into the store, and waited in line. 

The whole time was my heart was beating out of my chest.

All of my insecurities and what- ifs came rushing through my mind.

I kept pushed those thoughts aside, and kept moving forward in line.

When it was our turn I pointed to the cart of groceries sitting there and asked the cashier to ring up the entire cart of items because I wanted to pay for them.

At first she said, “But they are their’s,” and pointed to the mom and her daughter still waiting outside for the dad.

I said, “I know.  I would like to pay for them.”

Then the cashier asked, “Do you know them?”

To which I replied, “No.”

After giving me a long confused look, and shrugging her shoulders she then just said okay and started 

un-bagging all of the items and placed them on the belt to ring them up again.

As I started unloading the items I noticed there were some Christmas decorations, crayons, and little toys but there was also milk, eggs, cheese, snacks, and other food items.

My heart was breaking for these people buying their necessities at the dollar store and immediately I felt reaffirmed by Him that I was doing the right thing.

A peace came over me, unlike anything I have ever felt before.

I was hoping to pay for all of the groceries, leave the cart exactly where it was, and head back to my car thus making it an anonymous act of kindness.

Unfortunately as the last items were being rung up by the cashier the family came back into the store and saw what was going on.  

The mom thought the cashier was ringing them up for her to pay until I politely said excuse me and swiped my card in the machine.

The mom gave me a puzzled look and said, “What? Why? I have the cash here.”

I simply looked at her, the dad, and little girl and said, “This one’s on me.  I would love to do this for you.”

They both looked at one another then back at me with the biggest smiles on their faces and said, “Thank you.”

I left that store yesterday with tears in my eyes, and saying a prayer for that family.

I don’t know who they are, where they live, or anything about them.

I don’t know if they are struggling, or if they really did just leave their cash at home.

But it doesn’t matter.

All I know is I  was supposed to pay for those groceries yesterday for that family.

And I couldn’t be happier that I did.

I am grateful to have had the resources to do it for them, and hope it helped them in some small way.  

I am thankful for listening to what God laid on my heart.

{via}