An Unexpected Help {Thankful Thursdays}

Most of us have been on both sides of An Unexpected Help. Whether we are the giver or the receiver an unexpected help is a blessing, although, sometimes it is hard to accept if you are the unknowingly giver. I’ll never forget the day four years ago after spending a morning running errands. I began to go over the receipts for my shopping and counting the money that was left, everything seemed okay, nothing out of the ordinary. But as the day wore on and I was helping children in VBS paint cars, I remembered there should have been more money left over. Sometimes, I normally tuck change in a side pocket or drop it down into my zipper bag in the bottom of my purse, so I didn’t give it another thought.

 

AN UNEXPECTED HELP

When I got home, I talked with my husband about what all I spent along with the amount of money that I started out with and what I had left over. After doing some math calculations, we realized that I was $40 short. Yes, FORTY DOLLARS! To some that is chump change, but to those who might be living on a tight budget with one income, that's a lot of money!

After talking about the money - me, mostly fussing about it. I continued on with my rant about how we really needed that money for some things that we needed. My easy-going husband (I love him; we are opposites) said, "Someone that needed that money probably found it, for me not to worry about." My selfishness piped up with, "I hope whoever found it REALLY DESERVES it because we need that money!" My husband lying on the sofa at that time sat up and said, "What do we really need? What are we doing without?” After giving him a list of things he asked, "Do we really need any of that?" I sat down and thought about what he said. No, we really didn't need those things. We've lived without them for several months and could continue to do so.

While I swept the kitchen floor one last time for the night, I was still thinking and stewing about the money. The next thing I knew the Lord brought to my remembrance the $10 my husband found in the grocery store parking lot the week before, the $20 my Mom found in the JC Penney's parking lot and handed to me several months earlier, and the $10 Jamie and I found on the road, while taking an afternoon stroll; all of which totaled $40. The Lord also showed me that someone else lost that money so my family could be blessed. When I told my husband about it, he also reminded me of the $100 that he found under his delivery truck in the parking lot of a store. That was a total of $140 that we were blessed with and someone else more than likely had to lose.

Sometimes unexpected help is hard to accept 

when you are the unknowingly giver.

The Lord uses people and situations that are not comfortable to bless someone else in need. I've learned a valuable lesson about this: money is not even ours, it all belongs to the Lord. While I thought we needed the money, there was someone in worse financial shape than we were. If the Lord wants to use His money He gave us to bless someone else, it really is okay with me. I pray that whoever found the money will know that the Lord allowed it to happen, not me.