A few weeks ago our church held a challenge that people could participate in to spread the love of Jesus. 30 people from the church each got an envelope with $40 in it from the church general fund. They were supposed to take this money and bless someone else with it to show them the love of Christ. Many more people in the church pledged to do the same thing, only not with Rock Prairie's money but with their own.
Brady and I took that challenge almost a month ago and at the beginning of this week we still hadn't spent our $40. We prayed and looked for opportunities to bless someone with this money but nothing ever came up. On Monday I was traveling for work and I stopped at Panera for lunch. There were a couple of elderly ladies in line behind me, I overhead them talking and I could tell from their conversation that they were having a hard time reading the menu.
I felt the Holy Spirit tugging on my heart and I knew I was supposed to buy lunch for these ladies. My heart started beating really fast and I got really nervous! When I got done ordering my meal, I handed my credit card to the cashier and told her that I would like to purchase lunch for those two women. It made me sad to watch the one lady order, the cashier had to repeat herself about three times when she asked "would you like a pastry item for 99 cents?" Then she told the lady her total but told her that I had already paid for it. The woman looked at me and gave me a big hug. I told her that my husband and I feel so blessed and we just want to share that blessing with others.
I then got my food and proceeded to sit down by myself with a smile on my face. One of the ladies then came to my table and asked if I was eating all alone, when I told her yes, she insisted that I come over and eat lunch with them.
Turns out their names are Fiona and Wanda, they are both over 80 years old, and they are both widows. We had a wonderful lunch together. They told me all about their children and their church. They asked me about my job, faith, and family. We also prayed before sharing our meal together.
When it was obvious to me that they were Christians, I felt like I kind of failed the challenge because it was supposed to shine the light of Christ to unbelievers. But Brady reminded me of all the Bible verses where we are called as Christians to take special care of widows!
I am not writing this post to toot my own horn; in fact I rarely ever do things like this. But I am going to start. I have witnessed a great example in Billy and Vonda of blessing others in monetary ways and I wish I would have started earlier. As Americans we are so attached to our money, but it's just money! Also it isn't even ours, everything belongs to our Father in heaven, He has just blessed us with certain things and we are giving the responsibility to be good stewards. The $22 I spent on their lunch was worth so much more than that.
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. - James 1:27
Brady and I took that challenge almost a month ago and at the beginning of this week we still hadn't spent our $40. We prayed and looked for opportunities to bless someone with this money but nothing ever came up. On Monday I was traveling for work and I stopped at Panera for lunch. There were a couple of elderly ladies in line behind me, I overhead them talking and I could tell from their conversation that they were having a hard time reading the menu.
I felt the Holy Spirit tugging on my heart and I knew I was supposed to buy lunch for these ladies. My heart started beating really fast and I got really nervous! When I got done ordering my meal, I handed my credit card to the cashier and told her that I would like to purchase lunch for those two women. It made me sad to watch the one lady order, the cashier had to repeat herself about three times when she asked "would you like a pastry item for 99 cents?" Then she told the lady her total but told her that I had already paid for it. The woman looked at me and gave me a big hug. I told her that my husband and I feel so blessed and we just want to share that blessing with others.
I then got my food and proceeded to sit down by myself with a smile on my face. One of the ladies then came to my table and asked if I was eating all alone, when I told her yes, she insisted that I come over and eat lunch with them.
Turns out their names are Fiona and Wanda, they are both over 80 years old, and they are both widows. We had a wonderful lunch together. They told me all about their children and their church. They asked me about my job, faith, and family. We also prayed before sharing our meal together.
When it was obvious to me that they were Christians, I felt like I kind of failed the challenge because it was supposed to shine the light of Christ to unbelievers. But Brady reminded me of all the Bible verses where we are called as Christians to take special care of widows!
I am not writing this post to toot my own horn; in fact I rarely ever do things like this. But I am going to start. I have witnessed a great example in Billy and Vonda of blessing others in monetary ways and I wish I would have started earlier. As Americans we are so attached to our money, but it's just money! Also it isn't even ours, everything belongs to our Father in heaven, He has just blessed us with certain things and we are giving the responsibility to be good stewards. The $22 I spent on their lunch was worth so much more than that.
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. - James 1:27
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