Gift of Giving Challenge

Over on the Bargain Shopper Lady, she shares a precious story of how a stranger blessed her family over the holidays. She has encouraged us to share our stories.

Immediately upon reading her sweet story, I was reminded of a time in my life when things were very tight. I was a single mom and my sweet little boy wanted to go out to lunch after church. It is so hard when you are always denying them simple pleasures, so this particular Sunday I gave in and took him to lunch. We went to his favorite 'birthday' celebration place, Santa Fe Cattle Company, since I had coupons from our Entertainment book that I could use. I dug them out of my purse and off we went!

It was very nice to sit and listen to my then seven year old son talk about his football team and school. Our food arrived and he wanted to pray. I remember holding his hand as he prayed and being thankful for his sweet spirit. Across the room I noticed a couple from church. They were my parents age and the husband always had candy for Matthew each time he saw him at church. I waved and they waved back.

Later on we were ready to leave and I was getting a little flustered because our server had not come back with the bill. A few minutes later she came to our table all aglow and told me that I did not owe anything and that my bill had been taken care of. I was quite shocked. I burst into tears. My little boy said in a loud voice, "Jesus provided for us Momma!" I was in shock and felt so grateful. I begged her to let me know who did such a thing so I could thank them. She was told to not tell me who had blessed us so. It was on the way home that I remembered the couple from my church. I never really found out who had blessed us but I told my son that one day we were going to be able to do the same thing for someone else.

Now some thirteen years later I am married and have four children. We have since had many opportunities to bless others and in return have been blessed. I want to always be sensitive to the Spirit so that we do not miss out on little chances to be the light to someone else. May God use you this week to be a blessing to another.