30 Intentional Acts of Blessing #26

Today's Intentional Act of Blessing was especially fun! Actually, this one was a little random. I didn't set out to do it, but when you're purposefully trying to tune into other people's needs it's hard not to see a God-given opportunity to meet a need when it's right in front of your face. Or rather, right in front of you in line...

Today Titus and I did some grocery shopping. We just needed to pick up a few things for to hold us over until Friday when we do our normal grocery shopping. We get paid twice a month, so when there are three Fridays in between paychecks we end up short on groceries. I know it seems kind of silly, but it's just a product of how we choose to budget. It's a good time for us to eat up some of our pantry staples and get creative with our meals. However, this time around we were out of milk, cereal and bread making it rather difficult to feed my kids breakfast or pack their lunches--hence the random mid-week trip.


Anyway, we were standing in line and when the cashier started moving the conveyor belt forward a can of Pillsbury biscuits fell to the floor. I picked it up and the lady in front of my said thank you and then we proceeded to chat for a few minutes about the scary evil biscuit containers that randomly explode on you. I kid you not I have a fear of those stupid biscuits! Well, not the biscuits, but the containers they come in... but I digress.

As the cashier finished ringing up her groceries I was playing around with Titus a little bit. Suddenly I saw this lady swiping her card multiple times and digging around in her purse to see if she had any other way to pay for the remainder of her groceries. I positioned myself in such a way as to see what her balance was. It was only $8.90 despite the fact that she had several bags of groceries, so I assume she had paid for most of them in cash but came up short and was trying to put the rest on her card.

I immediately thought of the random Wal-Mart gift card I had in my wallet because of some recent returns and I knew there was enough on there to cover the remainder of her tab.

Just as she was telling the cashier which items she wanted to put back I simply handed over my gift card and told the cashier that I'd like to cover the difference. He looked at me askew and said, "Um, are you sure?" I assured him that I was absolutely positive and she looked at me completely bewildered and thanked me profusely. She explained that her card had been giving her a number of issues lately and she wasn't sure why. Then she told me that her kids would be so grateful as most of what was in her bags were medicine and things to help take care of her sick kids. As she thanked me again I assured her it was my pleasure.

After she left the cashier expressed his extreme gratitude as well and told me that what I had done had made his day. I told him about my little project and expressed that it's impossible not to fill a need when God puts it right in front of your face like that.

That lady might feel like she was blessed today, but honestly, I think I was blessed even more so to be able to help her in what I know can be such an embarrassing situation. I've been in her shoes and I've been helped by others countless times. It's nice to be able to pay it forward!

*This post is one in a series of posts in which I seek to complete 30 Intentional Acts of Blessings in the 30 days before my 30th Birthday. You can read more about how this project got started here. And you can read other posts about it here and here.