I LOVE serving people, giving people money, helping out wherever I can. I'm not bragging, but God has always put that on my heart. HOWEVER, sometimes I'm not comfortable around the people I'm serving...I get awkward, I don't know how to act..so I'm always more comfortable dishing out money than talking and building relationships with them...It's something that I've felt convicted of for a while now.
God picked an energetic homeless woman to completely change my heart.
On the side of the road today was a woman selling The Contributor, which is a newspaper, created and sold by homeless people to make some money--it's an incredible ministry!! I see these Contributor sellers in Nashville a lot, but I never have any cash on me (they cost $1) and I don't think to scrounge up enough change.Well, today, this crazy, funny lady was walking up and down along the streets just smiling and waving to people! I knew I didn't have any cash so I started to look for enough change in my car before the light turned green. As she passed my car, she waved and smiled, but I responded with nothing because I was too busy worrying if I would be able to find enough change to give to her in time. I finally got enough and quickly rolled down my window. She came by and said in a friendly manner,"Darlin', why weren't you smiling and waving when I came by?" I was shocked that she'd noticed...I told her I was trying to find enough change for her. She said,"Honey, we love to see SMILES! The money isn't as important."
Then, the light turned green and I had to drive off.
But, WOW, that made me see a whole new side of serving. I was so concerned with giving her money, that I wasn't even paying attention to my attitude towards her. Instead of avoiding her eyes and smiles, I should have been embracing them!
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