Random Strangers

Yesterday while the kids and I were at Food City, a man came up to us. We were in the car, but not quite settled. He proceeded to ask for money. He said his girlfriend and baby were at the gas station, that they had ran out of gas, could we please help. I will tell you that as a family, we help. If we have it to give, we give. We do not ask why, we do not decide whether or not someone is "worthy" of helping. I don't carry cash usually but I offered to go to the gas station and put gas in the car. He was thankful, and told me where they were. Car full of groceries and grumpy tired kids in tow, we headed to the gas station. The kids chatted about it "our family likes to help people" and "if we didn't have gas we would want someone to help us" were some of the comments. We arrived at the gas station and there was no car. No girlfriend, no baby, no nothing. There are two similar gas stations so we actually drove to the other one, just in case. Nope. No one. Isaiah's response, which has many times regretfully been my own was loudly exclaiming "well what a waste of time for a liar". I pulled over to talk to the kids. I didn't want to brush it off or pretend this moment didn't matter a lot. I asked them, "why did we come here" "To help that guy but he lied" "Yes, but why did we do that?" "Because God says help people" "And did we come to help?" "Yes" "Then we have not wasted our time" Funny someone wise said almost the very same thing to me recently. We are kind and loving because God calls us to be kind and loving. Kindness is not weakness, nor is it ever a waste of time if you look at it that way.