#21

Pay for a stranger's dinner...

I almost crossed this off my list a few weeks ago because, instead of dinner, I paid for gas for someone's car... A man approached me at the gas station and told me he had forgotten his wallet- I told him I would go in and pre-pay for it and he just looked so relieved that I was helping him. He offered to wash my windows, and I told him, no it was ok, I was happy to help him for nothing in return. I started thinking about how much I would tell them, maybe $5 or $10, but on my way in I turned around and saw his mom in the car (an older woman), and all of a sudden I didn't know how much to say anymore. I stood there at the counter, and the cashier was looking at me like I was nuts. I finally said, "$20 on pump 6." When it flew out, I kinda couldn't believe it. I had just spent $30 to fill mine! But it was a total God thing, and I really didn't feel in control of the answer I had given. Soooo, as I said, I thought I would cross #21 off for this, since it was still an act of kindness for a stranger, but then I realized that I had put "dinner" on the list for a reason and I had better do what it said.

Which leads me to tonight. My small group had discussed going out to dinner one night and picking someone in the restaurant to pay for. We went to Chili's tonight and did just that! We started looking at the people around us, but decided we definitely wanted to help a family. A mom and her son ended up sitting down right in front of us, but the mom didn't eat anything, only the boy, who looked maybe 8. I decided to go ahead pay for the boy's dinner by myself, as I felt very drawn to them... but we also found an older couple with an even older lady with them, and knew that was who we wanted to pay for. All of us chipped in on the bill, and we all felt so good afterwards! We asked the manager after (who had helped us in the process) and she said they were really surprised and said what a nice thing had been done! The manager even had a big grin on her face- I hope because she felt good to be a part of it.

#21- done! (twice!)