When We Least Expect It

Lindi here.

I’m a huge fan of encouragement. I believe that a kind, uplifting word can do wonders for the soul. Can brighten a bad day. Can make the impossible seem possible.

Sometimes, when we least expect it, someone comes along with words or acts of kindness that leave us smiling. Don’t you love it when that happens?

Have you ever gone about your day looking for ways to be an encourager? Have you seen someone having a rough time of it and offered a helping hand? A few dollars? An invitation to lunch?

A couple of weeks ago I was at a drive-through. I was probably five cars back, nothing unusual—except the wait was unusually long. We didn’t move for fifteen minutes. When we finally inched up a little, the wait continued to be long. I’m normally not an impatient person, but I will admit to looking for a way out of the line. If my car would have jumped the curb we would have been out of there.

Then I got to the window and the cashier told me the guy in front of me paid for my meal.

What?

Seriously?

I said okay and drove forward. My long wait at the drive through suddenly took a turn in a better direction. Only when I got to the window and received my food did I realize that maybe I should have paid for the guy behind me.
I told my daughter the story and she said it was called Pay-It-Forward and she thinks it started at a Chick-Fil-A. I wouldn’t be surprised.

Then I started feeling guilty about not buying the meal for the guy behind me. Doesn’t it always work like that? Something good happens then we, as humans, try to find a way to mess it up. I quit feeling guilty and enjoyed my double cheeseburger, fries and coke. And the next time I’m in a line that moves slowly, I’m buying a meal for the person behind me.

Or I may not wait. There probably doesn’t have to be a horrible drive-through experience happening to brighten someone’s day.

Have you experienced the Pay-It-Forward drive through experience  either giving or receiving?

Lindi Peterson—Happy Endings Are Just The Beginning