Widow’s Mite

Where do I begin when I can’t get my thoughts to slow down enough to communicate comprehensively? Ok, I’m breathing deeply and slowly to claim myself. Now, I’m ready to share some stand-out moments from the Visalia’s Women’s Retreat in which I was the key speaker on Saturday, and Spectrum lead their Sunday service. For the sake of keeping the identity of these individuals, I have created false names. First, Brianna who is a strikingly beautiful woman is a correctional officer by profession. She volunteered to share a brief testimony toward the end of the retreat; it was nothing short of powerful! She began by telling a little about herself; she’s a wife and motherwhose husband loves her and her children adore her. She then talks about a young lady she lovingly calls her friend. She reveals how this “friend” volunteers her time feeding the hungry at a local shelter. She goes on to say, that in one of her conversations with her; she learned that she and her children had not eaten sufficiently in approximately three weeks. She said to her friend, but you have been serving at the shelter; why haven’t you eaten there? The friend replied I didn’t want to take from those who had a greater need; I didn’t want anyone to think I was serving in order to receive. How powerful! Brianna compared the similarities of the scholars in the Bible, who were arrogant and showy with their offerings, to her friend and the widow’s mite, who both gave little, which was all they had.

Brianna further shared, that upon hearing about her friend’s situation, she agreed to go with her to get her food subsidy card renewed. Thinking the process would take a long time and it would be difficult to reinstate the card, surprisingly it was neither. In a short time of applying to have the card updated,her friend was informed that there was $1,100.00 in food credit on the card. Can anyone say “blessing?” She took her friend immediately to go shopping for groceries, only to find that she had filled the cart with food for the pantry. My takeaway, serving/giving is not determined by how much you have, it’s determined by the size of your heart!

A Pinky Kind of Love,

Carole Carnie