Oh good morning friends. It is not even that early but it is still gloomy outside and that seems to make it more of a challenge to get up and get moving. I liked how yesterday I got my writing out of the way in the morning. It means I hit my goal of daily writing for 30 days and it meant I didn’t have it looming over my head all day that it needed to be done. To be honest, if I had not set the goal of daily writing, I would not be here at the computer right now. I could have mentally set a goal….like “Oh it would be nice to write daily.”…but I would have pushed it to the side for other things. It is what I do. This is the reason I have challenged myself because I know myself. I didn’t want to do it but I did it anyway…..because of the challenge that I put out there for the world to see. It is keeping my accountable.

Here is my story for today. On a regular basis I drive past this homeless woman selling papers. This is how we do it here in middle Tn. I am sure other places do that as well, but I don’t know. If a homeless person is wanting to get off the streets and can prove they are using the money for home things and not drugs than they can sell these papers. I think there are more companies now but the first one that I know about had stories and art work writing by the homeless community and published to sell to anyone. The seller bought the supplies (the printed paper) for .25 cents and sold them for $1. They made a profit of .75 cents. This seems crazy cheap but for someone who can’t get any job, this is a step in the right direction.

Anyway, back to the lady on the side of the street, selling papers. I see her all the time. I see her body language and it screams that she is so sweet and yet so beating down. As one might imagine she seems to carry major insecurities and I get so sad for her every time I pass by her. One time while driving past her I felt this overwhelming need to tell her that God loved her and that he was proud of her. I thought of all the ways this was not possible to pass this message on. First of all the light was a tricky one, I hardly had enough time to buy a paper, much less have a conversation with her and I didn’t want to do it. I didn’t want to be the weird o’. So I drove off. God is funny like that though, He will keep at something for awhile. It took me a few more times of seeing her before I talked to her. I could not get her off my mind until I told her. I got to to the red light, rolled down my window, had my dollar in hand, and talked to her. I said “Hi” and told her that “God loved her and that He was so proud of her for getting a job and doing her best”. She smiled back at me and said this..

“My cat died last month. I am really sad still”

“Oh, ok, wow I am sorry to hear that.”

Light is changing in a hot second. Was this all the Lord wanted me to do?

Apparently it was. The light changed, I felt peace about speaking what was on my heart and a little in wonder about her response. I would imagine she is on the streets for any number of reasons and I would imagine that some of them would make it hard to believe that the God of the Universe loves her and is proud of her. I would imagine that many of us feel that there is no way God could love me. If he knew about ……If this ever got out in the open…..

The amazing thing is, God does love you. He loves you before you were born, while you were a sweet baby, while you were growing and figuring out who you are. He loves you in the mist of when you sin and he loves you when you turn towards him and fall repeatably back into old habits. His love for you stays exactly the same, consistent and full from the beginning of time until the end. It is who He is and has nothing to do with what you did and didn’t do.

My conversation with Tammy went nothing like I thought it would but it happened. She heard that God loves her and maybe you need to hear it too. God loves you and he is proud of you.