Nothin' a little bit of kindness can't fix

I’m sure y’all have heard the “Kill em with Kindness” motto, but why can’t we be kind to people all the time? The past two days I’ve had some frustrating moments where I was just kind instead of getting upset and all was well! I’m currently sitting in the airport where my flight got delayed for 2 hours, so I’ve got some free time. I woke up at 5:30am to get to the airport really early so that I could return my rental car and have plenty of time before my 9am flight. It wasn’t until I got to my terminal that our flight got delayed to 11am. I check my phone and see that I have a voicemail from a 1-800 number. Uh oh. It was a voicemail from American Airlines saying that my connection from Chicago to Madison, WI was pushed back and I wont be arriving in Madison until 8pm. I am headed to Madison for ONS or “Orientation of New Staff” for InterVarsity.

In case you didn’t know, I will be working as a missionary for InterVarsity working with fraternity and sorority students on college campuses! I am so excited to get to the training, but check in is from 2-5pm so I naturally went into a panic when I knew I wouldn’t be arriving until 8pm. So what to do?! I called my mom to complain at first, but then I figured I should try calling back the 1-800 number. I talked to a sweet lady named Tara and explained the situation, but she said all earlier flights from Chicago to Madison were booked. I kindly asked her if their was anything else she could do to get me on a flight that would arrive between 2 and 5pm. Memphis is a really small airport too, so options are limited. She rebooked me to fly from Memphis to Dallas and then get into Madison at 4pm. WOHOO! And I like Dallas way better than Chicago – double win! I never raised my voice or got upset, and Tara was happy to do what she could. I got her full name, so that I could go leave her a great review on American Airlines and I am a happy girl!

I was debating telling this story, but it was so sweet so I must! I was speaking at church yesterday for Greek IV to work on raising support for my ministry. (Read “My Calling” page to learn more!) So, I decided to make cake balls to have at my little table because people at church had been requesting them…anyone who knows me knows they are my signature baked good. I headed to Kroger to get the few things I needed and a friend, Allie, was coming over to help. I grabbed my cake mixes and supplies and jumped in the express lane. It is a pet peeve of mine when people go in the express lane with more than 15 items. I used to be a cashier at a grocery store and I could always see the frustration in customers when you had an annoying coupon lady with well more than 15 items…..aka the lady that was in front of me this time.

She had a cart full of groceries and a million coupons and she kept stopping the cashier to make sure her coupons worked. As I stood there and waited I just got more and more annoyed. However, when we got to the end of her cart she realized she might not have enough money to pay for some of her items. She had a bag of bread and half carton of milk left and she kept asking the cashier to take of certain items and then scan other items to be under her price point. He asked her if she still wanted the milk and she debated for a second and then replied that he could put it back since she didn’t have enough money. Immediately I started to feel guilty that I was getting annoyed with this lady and complaining about her coupons and taking forever when she was so concerned with the discounts because she needed each and every discount in order to be able to pay.

I’m blessed and lucky to come from a family and background where I learned how to manage money, but that I’ve never had to worry if I would be able to pay for groceries or something I needed. So feeling like a Good Samaritan I just told the cashier to put the milk with my checkout items. He handed it to the lady and she goes, “Oh no I didn’t buy that” and I said, “Oh no ma’am, I just got it for you, don’t worry about it”. I wish I could have taken a picture of her face. It totally made me want to repent for being such a brat earlier! She was practically in tears and couldn’t say thank you enough. To me it was just a half carton of milk, but she couldn’t believe someone would be so kind to her.

Anyways, it’s often my first instinct to be annoyed in these types of situations, but then I’m reminded that a little bit of kindness can fix anything :) 

This post is actually from Wisconsin now because I didn't have internet in the airport to post, so it's a day late! Also....after all the airline drama my bags got lost and I just got them about an hour ago. It really wasn't too big of a deal although I am thankful to have clean undergarments haha!

Here is a picture of me and some of my Staff friends hanging out on our first night here - more updates to come, I am already having a blast! Can't wait for CHEESE!

XoXo,

Southern Saving Grace