Yesterday morning I had breakfast with my wonderful friend Loren and our bloggy friend Steph of stephtmomof3. If you don’t know Steph, click here and check out her blog, you will love her!! We had so much fun sharing and laughing together!! It is so cool to get to know all my blog friends through their posts, but it was really great to get to have breakfast and get to know Steph in “real life”.
After breakfast, Loren and I were standing in the parking lot talking and noticed this super cute, little, old lady walking by. We commented on how cute she was, but didn’t really think much of it. A while later, I noticed her again only closer to us, and said to Loren, “do you think she is lost or something, maybe we should check on her.” We walked over and asked her if she was okay and she began to tell us that she comes to this parking lot some to get enough money to buy groceries. During the course of the conversation, she told me she had ridden the city bus for years and that when she turned 80, they gave her a free bus pass and that was how she gets around. She lives with her son and DIL who is extremely sick and needs full time help. She is now 89 and does all the cooking and cleaning for her son and DIL to help them and goes out to try to get money so her son can stay home and take care of his wife. I was so touched listening to her. She was absolutely precious!!
She then told us she never asks anyone for money until they have already been in a restaurant to eat and are leaving because she wants to make sure no one ever does without on her account. She also said every night she prays for every person who gives her money to be blessed back with more than they gave.
As I stood listening to her, I really began thinking about my Nanny!! She too was a sweet, little, old lady who gave up everything to take care of my siblings and I. Although she never was so short on money, I knew had she ever been, she could have been that sweet old lady walking through parking lots trying to get enough money to feed us. My heart is breaking here!! What if people had treated her badly, what if people didn’t help her, how would she have felt if she hadn’t had enough money to feed us...
Then to my horror, I remembered that I had grabbed my tiny little clutch with my debit card on the way out the door and I didn’t even have a dollar to give this sweet lady. I told her and showed her in my clutch that I didn’t have any money (thank the Lord Loren had a little and gave it to her) but that I would really love it if she told me her name because I really wanted to pray for her. She said her name was Fern and she sweetly told Loren thank you and that she really appreciated it, she also asked if giving her the money would cause a hardship. At this point she said, “I know this money will do me good, but the prayers will do so much more.”
So we all held hands, and I prayed for her. We told her we would continue to pray for her and to be safe. At this point we walked away and my heart was really heavy. I know the Lord puts people like Fern in our paths, not only for us to be a blessing to, but to remind us of the many blessings I take for granted on a daily basis. To remind me of the wonderful Nanny I had who sacrificed so much for me. To remind us that no matter what is going on in our lives, everyone else has something going on in their life too. To remind us of why we are here in the first place, to show and be Jesus to the world around us.
Please remember my sweet Fern in your prayers, and remember to always be looking for your Fern!!
"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” Matthew 25:40
Don’t forget tomorrow is Why I Count it all Joy Wednesday!! Grab my button, make your list, it doesn’t have to be long, one thing, one hundred things, it doesn’t matter, just find your JOY and come back and link up so you can share it with us. Remember JOY is contagious!!
Counting it all JOY!!
