Pay it Forward

Pay it forward is a phrase that I have been hearing a lot lately. I've seen it on TV, online, in the register checking out and a few other places. Most people know what it means, and on some scale people have been doing that for years. There were many times growing up when my parents would do something like pay for someone else's coffee in line at the drive through and other times where someone would do it for us. I have been very interested in this whole Pay it Forward campaign.

I had heard my friends say that someone did something for them, so now they would pay it forward, but I never really had that experience. Until today that is. It didn't happen to me per say, but for an organization that I volunteer for. My mom has this ongoing retail relationship with a banner company. We have ordered so many banners for so many different things. These banners are pretty reasonable cost wise, but shipping of course is the killer.

This time in particular the banners that arrived had been misprinted in one area. Which meant that the ones arriving next would also be wrong. The mistake was not made by the company, it was made by us. We called the company ready to pay for all new signs. Credit card in hand, my mom spoke to one of the workers trying to figure out the cost of what it would be. We knew that the burden to pay would be on us because, as I said before it was our mistake not theirs. However, instead of getting charged for the whole thing, they said they would take care of it. All we had to do was pay a small fee for shipping.

We were relieved and hung up the phone before realizing that we had made the same spelling mistake on the other sign as well. So we called back, again, with credit card in hand, and when my mom asked the gentleman how much she owed, he told her not to worry about it, that he would take care of it. We offered to pay for shipping and he said no.

Now we knew that this time the banner would not be done in time so we accepted that and tried to move on, but the man on the other end heard the slight disappointment in the tone of voice and asked when we would need it by. The tough thing was, that we needed it by next Wednesday, and shipping on that would be way too expensive, but he walked away from the phone for a minute and when he came back he told us that it was all taken care of.

What a blessing this was today. Something so unexpected yet so great. We immediately felt that we needed to, well, Pay it forward. So as we stop and figure out where our opportunity lays, we can step back and remember just how many blessings we actually have in our lives. In really thinking about it, one can realize that God was the pay it forward advocate. He doesn't want us to do nice things because we want something in return, its all about simply giving.

There is so much more to write about, but what I am basically saying, is that its your turn and its my turn to pay it forward. Don't wait for it to happen to you, do it because you know that God would always do it for you. Show someone else the love of Christ and the gift of giving that He has instilled in our bodies. God Bless and good luck!