So I am finding God has allowed us many opportunities to give in our
every day life. So often it is easy to compartmentalize areas
of life and for us that includes giving.
We were walking into a local
mexican restaurant to eat lunch after Mass one day and sitting on the
bench outside of the restaurant was an elderly man who was dressed in
rags and looked very dirty. My three year old has one of the biggest
hearts and does not let the way someone looks keep him from giving
hugs. So we say hi to him and our little guy offers a big dimpled smile
accompanied with a bear hug as he would call it. My husband walks up
behind us and sees this happening and invites the man to come in and eat
with us. I continued into the restaurant with the kids as I see my
husband sit down on the bench with him. Five minutes later he walks in
with only his socks on his feet. We get to the table and I wondered
why the man wasn't with him and what happened to his shoes. The story
goes the old man was going to be heading to church and could not stay
long enough to eat or wait for a to go meal. My husband then looked
down at his feet and saw all of the holes in his shoes and asked him
what size shoe he wore. It happened to be the same size as my
husbands! So my husband proceeds to take off his shoes. The mans hands were having trouble taking off his own shoes so my husband gets down and takes off his shoes for him and then puts his shoes on the man. The man walked off in his new shoes and my husband came into eat with just his socks. I took the picture below!
I had been wanting to share this story for a month or so, but I think it makes it even a better story now that I can say my husband still has not purchased new shoes. The shoes that he gave away he loved and had just recently bought. We ourselves don't buy shoes very often. It really was a big sacrifice for him, but he didn't think twice. On top of that we don't eat out often because it costs quite a bit for our family to eat out and when we do we are always trying to cut corners and without hesitation my husband offers to pay for another person to eat. He inspires me! Being the provider of our family I can see how it would be easy to be more stingy and cautious with money, but my husband he is an inspiration because we don't have a lot to give financially speaking, but he is always stretching us and listening as the Holy Spirit guides him in his generosity.
