Yesterday eveving we had about an hour to run some errands together before Kevin had to go to Bishopric and we needed to go to Wal-mart and Kohls. I just ran in to Wal-mart for just a couple things and got in the "Express Lane" behind 4 people. (The other Express lane only had 3, but one of their carts CLEARLY had more than 20 items...ugh, that bugs me!) So, I think I'm smart and then the lady two in front of me starts ran-sacking her purse and it becomes evident that she's searching for more money. She finally found another gift card that she thought had $36 on, but didn't. Keep in mind I've been standing there for 10 minutes already and thought "Why didn't she look in her purse while she was standing in line for 10 minutes? I still need to get to Kohls and I won't have very much time there if this keeps going on much longer. Some people!?" Then something inside me (my heart) changed and I started feeling bad for her and feeling bad that I thought those things. I asked the guy in front of me how much more she needed and he said 16 dollars. I thought "I could do that." I just felt so bad for her - I could see she was getting more frustrated and embarrassed and I knew if I were in that situation, I would love some help! So I paid the 16 dollars for her and she got down my name and address to send me a check. The guy in front of me was just awe-struck and the guy behind me said, "We'll see if you get it back" and the checker said, "As long as you're handing it out..."
Hmmm, now what can we learn from this?
First of all, I'm not writing this to get extra praise or to gloat that I have a ton of extra money just to shell out, 'cause I don't, but I was most concerned with how surprised everyone was that I would do something like that. It's only 16 dollars people (and Kevin said he'd work an extra hour today to make up for it:)!
I know all of you reading this would have done the same thing. I'm sure she'll pay it forward.
4 comments:
Good for you Erin! I've come close to doing the same thing before. There was a woman in front of me who had two kids, and was buying groceries. She stopped the checker half way through and said, "okay, that's enough" and I felt HORRIBLE later because I WANTED to help her, but didn't because I was worried she would take offense that I assumed she couldn't feed her kids or something. Thanks for showing us that its okay to help, and to not be so worried about what people will THINK.
Good for you! It is awesome to know there are people like you in the world. It gives me courage to be more helpful, even if it might offend someone. Please keep us posted if she pays or not. I have faith in her and humanity!
Erin, you are so great! You are an example to us all! Way to go girl!
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