Give with love...trust His love

I was REALLY craving cereal and milk last night. I've been eating very healthy over the past month, but I've been avoiding a lot of essential dairy food items that I love, namely milk. As most of you know, my family is living on one income while my husband completes law school. It's been going well financially, but every now and again we get down to the last few dollars and have to stretch them between pay periods. Yesterday was one of those days when I realized we had gotten to that point.

So I can't knock the cereal craving, and I hop in my truck and drive to Publix. I pull into the parking space and notice an older model pickup truck in a parking space across and to the right of mine. I sit there and primp for a few minutes with the car still running (yes, I primp even before I go into the store...sad). I notice that a man gets out of the passenger side of the aforementioned truck. After I turn off my truck, I glance over again and notice that he closes the door behind him and crosses his arms. He is wearing sunglasses and appears to be staring directly at me. He is who people that I know, both white and black, would see and immediately refer to as "redneck". His arms were covered in tattoos, his clothes and even the truck fit every stereotype, especially in my little town of Douglasville. I walk briskly out of the parking lot into Publix, setting the alarm on my truck as I walk.

I buy my milk and cereal and walk back out to the parking lot. The guy is still standing in front of his truck. I unlock my truck about 15 feet away from it, and I soon as I get to it I unlike the door, toss the bags in the seat, and jump in ready to crank up and roll. The guy starts walking in front of my truck waving at me and smiling. I'm a woman all by myself in a quiet parking lot, and for whatever reason I didn't feel threatened in the least. I get out of my truck and smile back and say, "Hi, what is it?" He explains that he is very embarrassed to have to ask me this, but he and his girlfriend have been driving on E for the past few miles and realize that they won't make it to their home without running out of gas. He jingled a couple of nickels and quarters in his hand and said that it was all they had. I said, "Oh okay, you need some money for gas?" as I checked my wallet and realized that I had NADA. He says that he would really appreciate it if I could help, and reemphasized how embarrassing this was for him. I assured him that he had nothing to be embarrassed about, and told him that I would be right back.

Now, I knew when I first arrived at Publix that I only had a couple of dollars to spend on the cereal and milk because our account is near depleted due to a bunch of unexpected expenses. But something in my heart couldn't leave that young man and his girlfriend in that parking lot without trying to do something. I went to the ATM machine outside of Publix and withdrew cash. You're forced to withdraw at least $20, so I went inside of the store and got change made. When I got back outside to the parking lot the couple was sitting inside of the truck. The young man got out as I approached, and I handed him $10. He told me that I was a lifesaver and was more gracious than any person I had ever met in that type of situation. My heart felt very full, and I smiled back waved at his girlfriend in the driver seat and said "Glad to help!". I wished them both well and jumped back in my truck ready to roll.
As I drove home, I said out loud to the Lord, "I know that I just gave away what amounts to pretty much all we had left to get through the next few days, but I trust you Lord." When I got home, I didn't have the heart to tell my husband, because I didn't want to stress him out.

This morning while lamenting over our bank account we realized that our debit card had been "double charged" this weekend. OUCH. We had even less than I thought. I cringed but just kept quiet, and said silently "Lord, I trust you!" I really meant it, too. As soon as I stepped foot into the CNN Center to work, I got a call from the daycare that my daughter was running a fever and had been inconsolable all morning. My hubby went to pick up our daughter, and I left work and drove straight to the store to get medicine. As I entered the store, I started trying to figure out how I was going to get the supplies to help my daughter's fever and cold with the few dollars I had left.

Then a light bulb went on. My company gave us gift cards last week for all of our hard work on the big relaunch task. Gift cards worth a very large amount. I had completely forgotten about that card!! All I could do was shout "Thank you, Lord!" as I bought medicines and other things for my daughter. Isn't He is SO faithful ALL of the time?! We've got plenty of money to get through this week and even a little extra. I don't even need to say anything else. I think that nothing else needs to be said except what a mighty God we serve!