A Good Shaking from God, Will Work for Food

Just a note, it's the middle of the night and I felt God leading me to get up and post about this. So the following probably has a ton of grammatical errors and could have been written much better. But that's not the focus of this post and really shouldn't be my main focus when posting something I feel God is leading me to post.




Sometimes, in all honesty, lately it's been all the time, I've had blinders on. All I could see was my life, my family, and getting the tasks done that need to be.

I believe as followers of Christ, it is our calling and duty to help others. But with taking care of kids, car pooling, transporting our kids to a thousand different places, house cleaning, grocery shopping, working outside of the home, we are left with very little energy to stop and lend a hand to someone who is in need.

I say WE because I think this is true for most people. I know it is for me and if I don't acknowledge something how can I change it?

The light bulb went off today, God got my attention.

Roo and I were out running errands, doing some last minute school shopping. After many stops and a few hours we arrived at our final destination, Walmart.

As I was turning into Walmart, there on the corner sat an older man with a sign that read "Will work for food."

Now, I would love to tell you that my first instinct was to pull over and see how I could help him. However, that was not the case.

I saw him and thought, if people give him money he will probably not use it to buy food. Then I thought out of all of these cars passing by surely someone will stop and feed him or see what he needs.
Someone else, not me because I was on a mission, my last stop. I was focused on what we needed to get because I was tired and just wanted to go home.
We spent close to an hour in Walmart (don't ask where that hour went because I didn't realize we stayed there that long.)

We completed our list and got in the car said the prayer we always say, God protect us on our way to _______. This time the blank was filled in with home.

As we are turning out of Walmart, there he sat, with no food I could see. There was no water, it was hot and he was sweating. I watched him look at every car that went by and I could almost feel his shame. He didn't want to be there and it took all of his pride away to sit on a corner holding a sign for all to see.

Ruben asked what the sign said and what the man was doing. I read the sign to him and his response was "So why doesn't someone give him food?" Oh the things we could learn from children if we would just take time to listen.
Wow, what a way to get my attention. I pulled out of the parking lot and stopped at the first fast food restaurant there was and bought the biggest hamburger combo they had and Roo reminded me to get the biggest cup they had because "He's got to be thirsty out in this heat."

I drove back and pulled up to him rolled the window down and gave him the food. I could see the surprise in his eyes. His response, "God bless you."

I had to drive around the loop at walmart to get out and passed him again and I saw a couple motioning for him to come across the street to the sit down restaurant across from Walmart.

Seeing that really touched my heart and was awesome for Roo to see that others were helping the man out too.

Now, don't get me wrong, I could have done more. A $7 dollar combo is nothing if you haven't eaten in days. I should have went back into walmart and bought him some food that would last longer than one meal.
I didn't, but God definitely got my attention. He gave me a good shaking and made me realize that I have been so caught up in my own life that I could not see the needs of others.
He gave me a great opportunity to teach my son by example and discuss how how important it is to help others who are in need.
Thank you Jesus for getting my attention. I want to change my life, I want my actions to be pleasing to you. I want to treat people the way you do. Please help me recognize all the opportunities throughout the day to help others so that they can see You in me.