The other day I was blessed to be the recipient of someone’s kindness.
I was at the grocery store with the two little men. We didn’t need a lot of groceries, so we quickly grabbed what we needed and headed to the front. The lines to the checkout lanes were all pretty long so I decided to hit up the self-checkout. There was a line there too, and as we were waiting, the lady behind us asked if we were standing in line for the self-checkouts, she wasn’t sure where the end of the line was. I told her we were and we all proceeded to wait. Our turn came and we approached the check-stand.
I have come to have a love-hate relationship with these. They are great, but Deacon, the two-year-old, has come to find that it is really fun to put the food up on the stand and make it beep. One. Thing. At. A. Time. So it takes us a minute to get through. He’s putting up our food: one yogurt, the bread, another yogurt, some cheese, and on and on. Normally, I don’t mind the extra time it takes to have him help, but today I’m trying to quickly get us through as I know that there are many people waiting. But I also feel it’s important to let him help me. As we are ringing up our items, I notice that the lady that was standing behind me in line, has come up and is waiting behind us at our register. All I can think is that we are probably the slowest ones here right now and it would serve her better to get behind someone else.
But I quickly brush it off and ring up the last of our items. As I’m reaching for my wallet out of my bag, this sweet lady behind us, steps in and swipes her debit card before I have a chance to interject. I told her that was something she didn’t have to do. Her reply? “I know what I do and don’t have to do.” Which makes me smile 🙂
I’m kind of an emotional person, and so I immediately start tearing up. We shared a sweet exchange and she sent us off on our way. Deacon notices that I’m crying and says, “Mommy, why sad? Mommy sad.” I just told him, “No, that lady was so nice, Mommy is happy. She was so nice.” I know he doesn’t understand what happened, but it was a good opportunity to tell him that the lady did something very nice for us. And then all the way home he kept saying, “Lady nice” over and over.
And then there’s me. Driving home, tears pouring down my face, feeling so beyond grateful.
I don’t know why she decided to do that this day, but it was such a great reminder to me that people are good. I feel so blessed that I got to be the recipient of her act of kindness. This tender mercy that we were blessed to be a part of, is something that I’m not going to forget. It made me want to do good myself, pay it forward, and be a blessing to someone else.
So if you’re reading this, I challenge you to do good, do an act of kindness. That doesn’t mean you have to pay for someone’s groceries necessarily. It can be simple such as giving a compliment, texting someone you haven’t talked to in awhile, or sending someone a simple ‘thank you’ letter.
Do good. Be the good.
-Marcel