A Bit of Carolyn's Heart

After a lovely early morning prayer time with a friend, the day brought about some random errands. On one of those errands, we were at The Family Dollar. As we were getting ready to leave, Carolyn said, "Wait a minute." and opened up her purse. She pulled out her wallet and a penny. She said, "Since we don't have to pick Sarah up from school right now, can we see if someone in this store needs this?" My initial thoughts are, "Who's going to want a penny?" and "We don't want anyone to think we think they look like they need money." Human. Flesh. Thankfully, not what I said to her. In an effort to encourage her spiritually, I said, "Who do you want to give it to?" "I don't know." "Pray about it and see what God says." We then walk around the store and look for someone to give the money to. She spots a man and walks up to him saying, "Excuse me." He thinks he's in her way, so he moves. She stands there, looking at him. "Do you want this?" "No thanks." She is so sad! When she really wants to give someone something from her heart and they don't take it, it crushes her! So, please, if she offers you something, take it! :-) I try to give the guy a pleading look-to no avail. She then sees a couple ladies, but wants me to give the penny to them because she is now embarrassed. I told her she didn't need to give it to them if she didn't want to. We ended up leaving with the penny. I tried to encourage her not to be discouraged. If she felt like God was leading her to give someone in that store money, all she could do was try. How people respond is not what matters. Hopefully, she will continue to listen to those promptings as God continues to grow her giving heart. I also am thankful that God allowed me to be slow to speak and quick to listen and not to rush her out of the store. Later this evening it struck me how beautiful it was to see her heart open up and want to meet a need for someone else. I pray we are able to continue to nurture this part of her spirit. I also try to keep a record of things that I think are connected to our kids' spiritual journey, so I wanted to get this written down!