Finding God at Wal-Mart

Wesley and I keep saying that we need to buy gates to block Foster out of getting in the kitchen. Its one of those things I've needed to go get, but haven't found time to actually make it to the store. Well....I got a little inspiration last night as I caught Foster sitting in the fridge taking out all of the condiments from the door. The little stinker was trying to hold the door as closed as he could so I couldn't see him!

So...first thing this morning I loaded up the crew and headed for Walmart. I had no idea what an adventure we would have! I had also been putting off buying school supplies. I have all my material ready to go for this school year, but needed to buy the supplies to go with it. After sorting through the hundreds of different folders and notebooks and binders, my cart was fuller than I expected.

My last big item I needed was long florescent lights to go in my kitchen. My lights blew and I have been cooking in the dark practically for a few weeks now. Now I had two big gates, school supplies and long florescent lights in my cart (which made turning difficult because they stuck out of the end of the cart) . After you throw in a big box of diapers and a few groceries, there wasn't much room for anything else.

My brilliant idea for the day was to unload the whole cart on to the belt at the check out and then slide the gates and long light bulbs on the side of the cart to make room for all the bags. I thought it was a brilliant idea. I propped up the gates and light bulbs along the floor waiting for the cart to be emptied to put them back in.

All of a sudden...B-A-N-G. It sounded like a bomb went off, Foster starts screaming and Will decides to chime in as the two of them fight for who can cry the loudest. The cashier, an older man looks like he might have a heart attack and people are craning their necks in our direction to see what happened. The light bulbs fell, crashing on to the floor with a literal white puff of smoke rising in the air and glass EVERYWHERE. I had no idea florescent lights could make so much noise and such a massive mess!

After a nice lady came and swept up the glass and the cashier got his heart rate back to normal and continued adding up my tab, I realized there was NO WAY I was going to be able to get all the bags back into my cart. I went and got a second cart and finished loading up everything. We walked out of the store with me pushing one cart and pulling another with Randol trying to steer it. What a sight I must have looked like! I started getting those, "Bless your heart!" and "You must be crazy!" looks as we walked out the door.

In the middle of standing there with two screaming babies, bags of stuff everywhere and seeing what a celebrity I had become, I realized I had two choices, I could get extremely stressed out and embarrassed at what a scene I was making OR I could laugh and keep going, not worrying about what others thought. I chose the latter. I smiled and apologized and laughed, commenting that I had no idea what an adventure Walmart could be!

The only way I was still sane enough to realize my choices and to choose the better one was because the whole time I was there, God met me where I was. When I couldn't find the gates, a salesperson was right there for me to ask (and I can usually NEVER find help in Walmart). When I started getting stressed with Will whimpering in the sling threatening to start crying at any moment and Foster trying to climb out of the cart, a lady came with a huge smile and told me how precious my children were (which in that moment I really needed that reminder :-). After unloading the cart and trying to fit everything in the van while making sure there was room for my children to still fit, I thought, "How am I going to get these carts back inside?" A minute later, a couple walked up to me and asked if they could help me by taking the carts inside! Ah, what a blessing that small act was to me. So many little things to others, but so big to me. I know He placed people in my path for a reason. He met me in whatever situation I found myself in. What an awesome God who loves and cares about all the small things in my life. Who knew God shopped at Walmart!

"I have set the Lord always before me. Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken."
~Psalm 16:8