Yesterday I returned to that same Subway (I've been there many times since then). I brought with my daughter and niece. We ordered our food and my daughter asked if she could get chips and a soda pop. I said yes and the lady at the cash register rang up our food.
I was $1.68 short. My daughter looked up at me with her big green eyes, but I told her we had to put her chips and pop back. I didn't have enough money with me.
The lady at the register paused for a second and then handed the bag of chips to my daughter and said: "This one is on me."
My daughter's face lit up and she said thank you.
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| Who wouldn't want to make this face light up? :) |
We pulled out of the parking lot with smiles on our faces. It feels so good to be the object of someone's random act of kindness. Everywhere we went for the rest of the day my daughter told me to tell the story about the Subway lady's kindness. And each time I told the story, she grinned all over again.
"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." 1 Corinthians 10:31.
I'm so thankful my daughter saw generosity and love in action. I was able to talk to her about the importance of doing kind things for people, without getting anything in return, other than joy--but isn't joy one of the greatest payments we can receive?
What about you? When have you been the object of a random act of kindness? What have you done for someone else?
Love this, Gabe, and I love that your daughter got to experience the joy of random kindness. Honestly, I sometimes feel like God is constantly plopping randomly kind people in my path--like the guy who worked at Panera who randomly came to my table and gave me a free strawberry smoothie or the lady at Verizon's customer service who let me upgrade my phone waaay early or the dozen friends who have been so crazily supportive in a variety of surprising ways. Makes me want to be more intentional about blessing others. :)
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful story, Gabe! Your daughter learned so many lessons from that outing about giving people a second chance, kindness is a blessing, and receiving kindness doesn't require payback. You are such an incredible mom to your children.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it crazy what the gift of a few dollars can do for our spirits?
ReplyDeleteThis was a huge act of kindness, but when Mike was in law school (and we were living on ...um, not a lot of money), someone randomly gave us a huge chunk of money. We still don't know who it was. The next week, our car broke down and guess how much it cost? That same amount. Whether it's a few dollars or a few hundred, I love how God uses people in our lives to encourage us and remind us that He made us to live in community and help each other.
I recently had a friend gift me with something I did NOT expect, and it floored me. Just completely floored me. I had been faced with not realizing a dream and that person's gift was monumental in bringing me MANY steps closer to that precious dream.
ReplyDeleteGod has paved the rest of the way and now I'm on the precipice of something I didn't think possible, simply because of the kindness of someone I barely know.
I love that your daughter experienced this! We once had someone pay for our family's entire Pizza Hut meal. That was just a wonderful blessing at an unexpected time.I love it when God sends "hugs" our way!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharinng this
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