pay it forward

At a meeting of a women's spiritual support group, an acquaintence shared her situation - unemployment compounded this week by totaling her car and injuring her lower back. Her rent was due and she just didn't know where the money was going to come from to cover it. She asked for the group's prayers and any other support they could provide.

The look of fear and hopelessness in her eyes haunted me. It was the same look I had two months ago (and possibly have occasionally even now). I had a $20 bill in my wallet that I had been carrying around most of the week. I was saving it for gas for the car and other necessities. I couldn't part with it. So I did what I felt I could - I shared with her and the group the similar situation I experienced only 2 weeks earlier and the "miracle" that happened, which I attribute to prayer, faith and the power of asking. After the meeting I hugged her and offered my prayers of support. Other women did the same. Several of them slipped cash into her purse.

The following morning while I was meditating, my friend's haunting look appeared and I realized that she needed the $20 bill in my wallet far more than my husband and I did. We now "know in our hearts" that the money will come when and as needed. But my friend hasn't reached that point yet. Another image came into my mind -- opening the anonymous Christmas card with cash inside. I remembered how emotionally moved my husband and I were by that gift - and the faith it gave us that our abundance truly is right here, all around us.

I took the $20 bill from my wallet and put it inside a card to my friend. I wrote an uplifting message inside about the gift she is to everyone who comes in contact with her and signed it simply "With love from one of your many angels." And in my mind's eye, I saw her eyes light up with the knowing that she is loved, that abundance is flowing into her life, and that all is truly well.

In many ways, that gift of $20 was more of a gift to myself than to her.

original post:http://creditcardcraziness.blogspot.com/2008/03/pay-it-forward.html