The Value of $80

I am blessed with a husband who loves going to the grocery store. He goes almost everyday. Today I went with him. As we were checking out at the self check out kiosk a woman interrupted us. She apologized and explained that she had just put her groceries in her car and she realized she had not gathered her change, so she came back into the store to see if anyone turned it in. She had used the exact machine we were using so we all looked in the change receptacle and there were her bills. Eighty dollars in twenty dollar bills. Her face lit up and we stepped aside so she could retrieve the money. Her eyes filled with tears and she thanked us profusely, shook my husband’s hand and gave me a huge hug. I wished her a happy new year and she thanked us again.

Driving home my husband and I talked about the value of eighty dollars. For that woman it was probably the rest of her grocery money for the month. We both could remember good and bad times and what a difference four twenties in a wallet can mean in terms of making ends meet. It just so happened that our grocery bill was right around eighty dollars, so we totally understood.

Kindness takes on all sorts of forms. Kindness can be planned or it can be a byproduct of just being yourself. Kindness doesn’t cost anything, it doesn’t hurt anyone, and it has the power to change someone’s life for the better. Kindness does ask us to be consistent, to give freely and to be reminded that not everyone is having the same day we are.

Today kindness cost us nothing, yet for a stranger kindness calmed her worries and put eighty dollars back into her wallet. What value will kindness bring to your world today?