I think it is easy to forget the good in the world. There are so many bad/stressful things to concentrate on - flooding, the economy, the war, health care, the list goes on.
I was checking out at the grocery store today. I was rushing. I needed to get home so Judd could head to the UGA game. I was in the "10 items or less" aisle looking at the headlines of the magazines lining the aisle. I turned just in time to see the lady in front of me pay for her groceries. She handed the cashier a $10 bill for a total of $8.13. She said, "Keep the change" and took off.
The cashier said, "Wait, you have change - don't you want it?" She looked very puzzled, I'm sure I did too. The woman looked back and said, "No, keep it."
My first thought was, "Oh geez, do I have to tip the cashier now??"
I looked at the much-younger-than-me cashier and saw for the first time that she was pregnant. Did the woman intend to help out this pregnant girl by leaving behind her $1.87 worth of change? But, rather than just pocketing the change, the cashier took out one of the Benefit of the Week slips and filled it out in the amount of $1.87 and rang up the change towards the benefit.
I'm not sure why these two acts struck me - the donation and the way the donation was received. But it did. It made me remember that there is lots of good stuff out there - you just have to stop reading the headlines and pay attention. What good have you seen lately?
(The picture has nothing to do with the post - but I was going through some old pictures tonight and was remembering how much fun this summer was.)
3 comments:
This is the reason we don't watch the news. It is way to negative for me. Plus my mom and facebook will let me know if anything important happens including the weather report!
I'll have to keep thinking of other good things I've seen recently, but one thing I did not too long ago was refund a tenant's deposit out of my own money. She had purchased a home using our services and her landlord decided to keep her deposit because she broke the lease. While I understand the landlords position and it was within their rights to do that, I wanted to help ease the expensive burden that moving is for this single school teacher. It wasn't something I had to do, but I felt like it was the right thing to do.
I see so much good in the picture: the beautiful little girl whom God has given to our family, the sunshine beaming down, and the fact that she is a whole new beginning, just starting her little life. I see good all around me each day in my profession: the smiles of parents, of children, a crying child in my lap who ends up playing after 10 minutes or so, the 20 pairs of eyes looking at me as I read a story. I saw good this morning when I went to church: the quiet sanctuary, the greetings of fellow Christians who have genuine concern for each other, the breathtaking quilt that was displayed that 15 women worked on for countless hours to celebrate 275 years of our church. The fact that the church exists in this world is a testament to all things good. There is a great big fantastic world out there despite all the bad!
I love your story...there is a ton of good around, but unfortunaltey you have to be alert enough to take notice...we get bombarded all the time with the bad.
In case you didn't know, Barbara-Jo is off to Mongolia again tomorrow to search for kids with heart defects...and there is a surgical team there right now repairing a bunch this week. Prayers will be appreciated.
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