A moment through His eyes

Monday, February 11th

My heart is tender and aches when I hear of a broken relationship, especially of a marriage.  I know so many people from a broken relationship, my kids have several friends from broken marriages, my own parents divorced and I have two under my belt.  Brokenness is all around us and sometimes its seen and others its not.

There is this grocery store clerk at Safeway that when I see her behind the counter I go to her lane.  She is friendly and does a nice job.  I usually stop off at this one closest to work in the mornings so its nice to start the day off when I do stop on a happy and friendly note with good customer service.

Anyways we had a brief conversation that made my heart ache.  She had been talking with the gentleman before me and it seemed to be a deep, thoughtful and serious conversation.  I came up and they finished up their talk and he seemed concerned but very hopeful and gave her some encouragement.  Her last statement as he walked away was that she can  not afford to live her on her own.

She gave her attention to me with a good morning and a smile.  I simply agreed with her said I can not afford to live on my own here either, its so hard.  She said that she just found out over the weekend that her husband of 40 years wanted a divorce.  She said she didn't even know him anymore and was shocked and wasn't sure what she was going to do.  She said again after 40 years....

I asked her if I could add her to my prayer list.  She was so touched, she paused and took a moment before she responded.  She said that would be really nice.  She leaned in and her hand was close, I reached  up and placed my hand on top of hers and told her that I understood and had an idea of what she was going through.  I told her my name and that I come in often and I look for her when she is at a lane.  I looked at her name tag and said Wendy you are in my thoughts and to hang in there.  She thanked me and off I went to work.

It just goes to show you that you never know what others are going through and that we should try to notice and pass along a smile, a kind word or prayers.

I came home at the end of my day from work and wrote Wendy's name on my prayer list in my prayer journal.  I will also do my best to go in the store again soon and say hi and ask her how she is doing.

(I went back in later in the week but her lane had a long line and I was on my way to work so I didn't get to touch in with her but I know there will be another moment that I will be able to)

I'm thankful that I was able to see through His eyes.  When the Lord shows us that another person is hurting its time to take a moment to pray and reflect.