Undercover Smiles

--by sonrisa, posted Apr 1, 2007

Sometimes its really nice to help people out behind the scenes when they're experiencing a crunch or even just having a bad day.

A couple of weeks ago one of my colleagues at work was having one of those days where everything was falling to bits. She tried to withdraw cash from the ATM only that morning only to be denied due to insufficient funds. Payday was still a few weeks away and the bank was giving her a hard time to increase her overdraft limit. When you have plans to take another colleague out to lunch to celebrate recent accomplishments, this can be a little embarassing and distressing at the same time to not have cash to contribute. On top of that, she lives alone in this country (all of her family and close friends live in Africa) so she doesn't have a tight network of support locally and had to figure out a way to make it through the next few weeks, which can be extremely difficult.

After she got off the phone with the bank, I quietly offered to let her borrow some cash for the next few weeks until she got things back on track after pay day. She was really taken aback by the offer and agreed it would be helpful. I gave her the money in an blank envelope in a discreet way so that nobody around us knew what was going on. Really, I don't even expect her to pay-me-back because I love to pay-it-forward :) and just feel happy and fortunate to have been able to support her and serve her in some small way in her moment of need.

2813 Reads

Posted by sonrisa
Apr 1, 2007
Comments (5)

Readers Comments

LOVEBUG wrote: I have learned to pay it forward and never loan money it is always a gift. However I am beging to see this is not always the best way to handle some people. I am trying to learn discerment, so pray for me.

sleepytomato wrote: I have been in similar situations and it's sad how surprised people are when you tell them you want to help - it should be a natural thing - helping others - because that's how the world should be. Keep up the pay-it-forward attitute :)

silentdreamer wrote: well done!

violetangel wrote: If you don't need the money back it would be a kindness to tell her so bacause then she will stop worrying about how she can make the next month's money stretch after paying her debt to you.
:-)

Hope4lisa wrote: That was wonderful of you. I learned the hard way that "giving" money is the ONLY way to give money...... for myself and the other person. When they tell me they'll pay me back, I always make sure to tell them no, it's a gift. Somehow, it sets both of us free. I'm sure your friend was very grateful and your own heart will grow too knowing that, as you said, you have "payed it forward". Thank you for sharing your kindness!
God bless!

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