Walking in Someone Else's Shoes!

When I got the dreaded call 2 months ago that Logan had been in a car accident, I had all of the emotions and reactions that you can imagine a mother might have after hearing something like that. However, from the beginning I knew God was doing something special and there was a peace that everything would be alright. Difficult, but alright. 

 

Throughout this entire ordeal, God sent so many people into our lives to fill various needs. When I thought about sitting down to write out Thank You cards, the thought of doing so was overwhelming because there were just too many people that stepped up to be the hands & feet of Christ.   My daddy always taught me to never pass up an opportunity  to give to others and I was so blessed to see how collectively each person's contribution filled a desperate need for us.  Friends gave money, cleaned our home, mowed our lawn, washed our clothes, took Jarod to and from school for us & helped him with homework, others brought food, snacks, several gave up their time to sit with us in the hospital, coworkers did my bus duty and carried the workload for me, and many others offered up prayers on our behalf.  Every single act of kindness and every single prayer is & was appreciated more than we can ever express! 

 

One such person is a stranger that I "met" through the educational blogging world. When I wrote a blog post about Logan's accident, there were many precious comments & emails from people all over the world. Barbara from Texas wrote to me asking if she could send me a book that helped her after she went through a terrible head on car crash 9 months earlier.  Of course, I said yes but honestly never thought she would follow through.  It is a lot of trouble to purchase a book and take it to the post office to mail for someone you do not even know. But just a few days later, a package from Barbara came with not only the book but there was also a $50 Visa Gift card enclosed!  Keep in mind that my family falls in the middle income bracket so $50 is a lot of money, especially to be giving away to a total stranger!   

 

 After sitting a while in the floor and crying over the generosity of a complete stranger, I decided to pray about how to spend the money. My school coworkers had already given us $500 and EVERY bit of it went into my gas tank for the 45 minute drive to and from the hospital and/or fast food to eat along the way during those long 4 weeks. Not exactly how I would have wanted to spend the money but it was necessary.  For some reason I just didn't feel like that was how I was supposed to spend this money. 

 Days later, Logan's physical therapist wanted him to wear a shoe on his "good" foot and that is when we remember his shoes were in the back of my car from the day of the wreck.  When we got them out, we realized that they had been cut off of Logan's feet.  A fairly new pair of Vans shoes ruined. He loved those shoes!  So to ease the pain of yet one more loss, I told him about the Visa gift card and asked him if he wanted to order a new pair of shoes with it. And that's just what we did (along with a couple of music downloads)!

 

I wrote Barbara to thank her again and to let her know how we choose to spend the money and her response gave me goose bumps. Interestingly enough, Barbara is a school counselor and her theme has been empathy. She has been talking with her students about the importance of "walking in someone else's shoes" to get a new perspective and see how others may feel. How fitting that we used her generous gift to buy Logan a new pair of shoes!  

Check out her blog post about this here!

 

Matthew 25:35-40 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me. Then the righteous will answer him, Lord when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you? The King will reply,

Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’  

 

Be Blessed!