There always seems to be depressing headlines in the news, but here’s a story  about some good news. It’s the story of a modern day Good Samaritan (the original, in case you wanted to look it up, is in the book of Luke 10:30-37). The story came from my mother, and it was too good not to share.

Spoiler alert, if you are looking for a sensational story of a great rescue or heroics, like the news headlines whose criteria is if it bleeds, it leads, or if it’s engaging it has to be raging, then you will be disappointed. If you are, however, looking for a small, random act of kindness that perhaps you could emulate, please read on.

Unless I had a reason to be out of town, each week I would take my mother to do her grocery shopping, visit the doctor and provide company and transportation for any other errands that she needed. During the week, however, she liked to walk up to her “little store,” as she called it, to buy odds and ends.

Having walked to the store, she went to pay for her groceries, but she was short about three dollars. The only solution to pay for the groceries was to take off the items she could do without. With being a diabetic she needed rubbing alcohol to cleanse her skin before she takes her blood and her insulin. She still had some alcohol at home, so she put that back. She also put back a package of jambalaya. By taking off these items, she was able to bring the new total to the amount of cash she had with her.

At this store you check out then go off to the side to bag your own groceries. My mother was taking her groceries out of the cart and putting them into bags when a woman (a Good Samaritan) came up to her and said, “Here are the items that you put back,” handing her the rubbing alcohol and the jambalaya. My mother, who is never speechless, was speechless. She asked for the woman’s name and address so that she could repay her. The woman wouldn’t have it. She told her it was her gift.

My mother was so touched by her gesture that she decided to go back to the store and give the cashier a five dollar bill to keep on hand just in case the same happened to someone else if they didn’t have enough money for all of their groceries.

So, whoever you are, thank you for the random act of kindness that not only helped my mother out, but made her day too! It was nice to hear some good news.

Have you practiced or experienced an act of random kindness from a Good Samaritan? If so, please share it in the comment box below.

The greatest command tells us to love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. And the second is like it, to love your neighbor as yourself. (Matthew 22:37-39). A lot of people leave out the love yourself part.

If you have thoughts of self-doubt, self-criticism, or a view of a critical God (that’s the view I used to have), perhaps you don’t believe that God is more for you than you are for yourself. This free eBook and audio book combination will help change that view called Bringing God’s View into Focus to Live Life with Joy and Flow. Click on the link or image below to download your copies.