Love is... Helping Others (Week 2)

It's me again, I'm going to go ahead and do the first 4 weeks to give all the people that offering to participate some time to come up with some post ideas.

So this past week I thought about all the different ways that we show love and the first thing that came to mind were the five love languages. If you have never heard of this phrase, the 5 are words of affirmation, quality time, receiving gifts, acts of services and physical touch. I know that there are many other ways to show love and my personal love language is receiving gifts (it could be a flower from the side of the road because you thought of me, or a smoothie because you knew I was hungry etc )so I was trying to think of other things to do for people instead of just gifting people with things.

As I was thinking, I went along with my normal to do tasks and went off to the grocery store. I was standing in the cereal aisle deciding what type of oatmeal to get Jocelyn, when an elderly woman in her motorized cart came up next to me. She too was browsing the oatmeal's, but from a distance due to the cart. I pondered for a minute, debating on asking to help out or not, with the only thing stopping me was if she didn't want me help. I realized that what was holding me back was my fear. (Really what could she have said... No??)

So I asked.... "Can I grab an oatmeal for you"

She replied "Would you? That would be so helpful! My provider seems to have gone somewhere else and I can't reach it"

Easy enough, so I helped her out and then took it a step further and asked if there was anything else I could do. She had this shocked look on her face as though to say "really??"

She said "If you wouldn't mind there is a few more things on my list that I could use some help with"

So off we went to complete her shopping, all the while Jocelyn and she were smiling at each other, making each other laugh. It was actually a welcome break in my day and it seemed to bring her a smile or two as well. Funny that I was willing to let a little thing like "no I don't want your help" stop me from doing the right thing and helping out someone that was in need. I could have been any of the people that walked by and saw her in need and did nothing.

Please do not mistake this for any kind of bragging because it is quite the opposite. Often times I am that person that is often to busy to help others as I am trying to get in and out the store in less then 15 minutes :) But this one day reminded me (and I hope that it encourages you) that it only takes a few seconds to make a positive difference in someone else's life and also in all reality she made an positive difference in my day as well!