A Teachable Moment

A teachable moment, yes, that is what I stumbled upon yesterday.  

Telling your children the right thing to do is one thing.  Showing them the right thing to do through your actions is even better.  God gives us teachable moments and how we choose to use them is up to us.  I was fortunate enough to have one of these moments yesterday that I was able to use to help show my children what the "right thing to do" is.

Granted, this moment did not come at the most opportune time.  It came at a time when I could have easily given up, and said, "not today, God".  But I didn't.  Yes, the children were cranky and hungry and ready to go home.  I was finishing up errands at Target and putting my buggy away when I noticed the following items in the buggy in front of mine in the outdoor stall:

A coupon wallet, perhaps?

Yum, strawberry wafers!

Of course you can probably recognize that the first picture is of a ladies clutch purse.  When I saw it in the buggy it was partially opened with various receipts and coupons sticking out of it and because of the pattern and material, I thought it was a coupon organizer.  There was also this package of cookies.  What an odd combination of stuff to leave in your buggy I thought.  I announced to the boys to get back out of the car that we needed to go back inside Target to return these so that whoever lost them could hopefully come and claim them.  They weren't happy about it, but I explained we needed to do this so that we could help this person out.

I discovered that the thought-to-be-coupon-organizer was actually just a regular wallet with credit cards, money, and an NY drivers license inside.  I inquired at the customer service desk if they could take these items so that they could be claimed.  It was then that I started to put myself in the shoes of the woman that lost these items.  I wondered what would happen if she couldn't remember where she lost these items.  I asked what would happen if nobody claimed this wallet.  The Target person said that after 24 hours, the items are trashed.  Okay....now what should I do??

I decided to ask for the items back that I would find the owner myself.  I did leave my name and number with the Target desk incase the owner came their before I could track them down.  I could continue writing this story for many, many more paragraphs, but basically what it boiled down to is that I had to call in a favor from my former boss, a private investigator, to get a cell phone number to try and call the woman whose wallet I found.  I left a message with hopefully her husband stating I found a wallet and to please call me.  When I woke up this morning a very happy woman had left me a message  wanting to know where she could meet me to get her wallet back.

When I opened the door to meet her this morning she had flowers, a gift card, and a nice Thank You note for me.  Granted I did not do this for any "reward" but it was certainly nice of her.

It was a great lesson to teach my boys that we always try our best to do the right thing even when it's not the easiest or most convenient solution.

Such pretty Tulips!