Gif from Tenor.com
I look forward to Fridays for a multitude of reasons:
- I'm tired during the week and want to power down and unwind.
- It's payday.
- I like the look at money hitting my account at 2AM on Friday mornings. 🤣🤣🤣
But in all seriousness, after a successful and productive week, I'm feeling quite well. To be honest, I haven't felt this content in a long time.
Anywho, after I leave my morning shift, I fill up my gas tank before I go home. As I pull into the gas station and I turn my car off to get out of and pump some gas, I notice this woman approaching my car. Confused as to why she is here, I roll down the window to she what is she wants.
The woman with this sad look on her face, as if she has had the worst day of her life, gently asks me, "Excuse me, miss. Do you think you can put gas in my car? I'm a single mother with 3 kids in the car and I have no money and no gas."
In my head I'm like, "Huh? I BARELY have money myself." Which is true as I'm currently not making that much and I live in a very expensive city where I'm being taxed THREE TIMES. So the money runs very quickly. However, I am in a situation where I can rely on family for help so I can say I am blessed in that arena.
Normally, I would tell people I don't have it - which would be the truth. But today, something, without even thinking too much about it came over me. I simply told her, "I don't have much money so I'll see what I can do." She replies: "Thank you so much."
I proceed to fill up my gas tank and it came up to around $32.00,which is typical for me in a week. I look back to see this woman asking another gentleman for money. He took out a wad of bills which looked like a couple of $10 and gave it to her. She thanked him and blessed him. I wanted to see what she was going to do with it, but saw she simply put it in her pocket.
I then walked over to her car, a black SUV and did, in fact, notice her 3 young children sitting in the back seat, playing as if they don't even recognize the stress their mother was under. I believe that is the beauty of the innocence of a child and I really wish they can hold on to it dearly for as long as possible. Pulling out my debit card, I tell her "Unfortunately, I don't have enough to fill up your tank, but I can give you about $20." "That's fine, thank you." She replied in a sweet tone. I put my card on, she chose her grade level of gas and began filling it up sure enough to $20. Not a penny more.
"Thank you so much! God bless you!" She thanked me. I responded with a simple yet reassuring, "You're welcome. Take it easy and I pray things get better for you" as I walk back to my car. I drove off and went back home.
Later on in the day, I check the bank account of the card I used to pay for the woman's gas and I noticed the most peculiar thing. Though I paid $20 for her gas, my card was only debited $1. ONE DOLLAR. I was shocked and confused. But I thought to myself, "Wow. Maybe that woman really needed it."
(Edit:) But then I just checked my account and it just turned out that the app didn't finish loading the transaction. 🤣🤣🤣. Gotta love checking these apps first thing in the morning. But that didn't matter. It still felt good to help someone m
Listen, I live in a city where panhandling is a norm. A cultural norm. And unfortunately, you aren't in a position to help everybody. And some people will take advantage of people's kindness, so you do have to be careful of who it is you help. I tend to have pretty good discernment as it pertains to this, because even when I didn't have much, I managed to help some other people in need. But it is sad that you have to be cautious, careful, and protect yourself, because evil agents are REAL. I'm glad this wasn't one of those times and I'm glad I was able to be a blessing to someone today. Even though I might not always express it verbally, I definitely do care about people.