Thankful for $18.00

I was at Wal-Mart on Saturday afternoon, just grabbing a sub, some jalepeno chips, and a few other things for our Super-Bowl Sunday, and I saw a Mom and three girls leaving the store. The mom looked tired, she had her littlest girl tightly in tow, and her two older girls were dragging their feet behind her. They had bought nothing, Their coats were dirty, and they all looked a little stressed. They caught my eye for some reason...and I wasn't sure why at the time. I went on my way, and paid for our food, while they left the store empty-handed (and what looked like empty-hearted). You know, I never leave empty handed, in fact, I usually leave Wal-Mart with more than I could ever need, and more than we ever finish, usually. I say all of this because we ARE, in fact, a little bit poor this week. Our budget was tight anyway, and I went ahead with obedience and paid our tithe. I have to confess that there have been weeks when I have held back our tithe check, so we could have extra money for the week. This week I went ahead and paid, and yesterday Kris was cleaning out the garage and found a Christmas gift that I had bought for Katie and forgotten about/lost. I still had the receipt, and he took it to WM to get a refund and buy an extra $18 in groceries for the week. I wonder what $18 could have done for that family? Would they have left WM in what looked like despair? Would it have helped them in any way? Gosh...seriously...if I could DVR time and go back to that moment, I would have loved to have had just a $100 bill to give them. We are so incredibly, abundantly blessed, and I take it so much for granted. I think there are times when the Lord wants me to learn a lesson on thankfulness...and this time I think I did. I am thankful for the milk, bread, oranges, and string cheese that Kris will bring home in the morning-truly thankful.