Maria felt compelled by God to assist the stranger and her grandchildren. It was a thoughtful gesture that did not go unappreciated.
Everyone has been in a scenario where the decision to do something selfless is obvious and right in front of us! If we are completely honest with ourselves, we don’t always step up to the challenge, do we? One grocery store employee, on the other hand, found herself in a similar situation and chose to do what she could to help. Because of her tiny act of compassion, she was able to touch the hearts of thousands of people who were taken aback by her generosity.
Maria Balboa is employed at HEB, a local grocery store business in the state of Texas. She came across a woman who was in need of assistance one day.
Maria works as a bagger at HEB, and she was simply going about her business as usual when she became aware of something unusual. A woman and her two grandchildren had reached at the store to check out when they found a difficulty. The woman was paying with a SNAP card, and she only had $19 left on her card, despite the fact that her groceries were more than $137.
The woman who had paid with SNAP began to load her groceries back into the cart so that she could return them later, with the exception of the items she badly needed for dinner that night.
Too many people in the United States suffer from a lack of financial resources to purchase food. The fact that she was struggling wasn’t the only issue for this grandma; it was also the fact that she was making such a public revelation about her difficult condition, even though people were being supportive. Maria, on the other hand, was well aware that something needed to be done.
Marie, instead of standing by and feeling sorry for herself, made a choice to help.
She made the decision to purchase groceries for the woman after experiencing what she described as a “God-given urging.” Having to make such a difficult decision in such a short period of time, especially given the amount of money involved, was difficult for Maria. Not everyone has the financial means to spend more than $100 on a stranger, even if they feel compelled to do so!
Nonetheless, a determined Maria informed the woman that she would take care of the situation.
Following payment, everything appeared to return to normal for Maria and the other cashiers. That is, until Maria received a phone call from her boss, asking her to come meet him in his office. When she walked through the door, she was handed a note written by the woman for whom she had paid the bill.
It mentioned how she was a grandmother who was responsible for her grandchildren and how they had been experiencing financial difficulties. Maria’s kindness had touched her deeply, and she expressed her gratitude abundantly.
Maria was taken aback when her manager handed her a check for the exact amount she had paid to help the woman. She couldn’t believe it.
‘I am called to the manager’s office, where I believe I am in serious danger. But instead, he claimed that the lady whose groceries I had paid for had submitted a survey on me, which he provided as an attachment. Reading the survey results brought tears to my eyes, and I felt good about paying for groceries. My supervisors were quite pleased with my performance and noted that ‘we can’t train someone to have heart.’’
The incident served as a powerful reminder that no matter what our circumstances, we can always do something nice for someone, no matter how tiny. Maria beautifully expressed herself in her blog post:
‘Always be kind and do a good deed for others when you have the opportunity. It could be as basic as holding the door open for someone unfamiliar or congratulating them. Good deeds always come back to us in ways we don’t expect. Always be kind to those around you, because you never know what’s going on in someone else’s life.’
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