Any other Chick-fil-a fans out there? I love Chick-fil-a (maybe a little too much), and I really love the fact that I can order ahead of time and run in quickly to pick it up, thus eliminating the awkward counter ordering experience. While this makes things a little easier for the normal person, I’m still able to find a way to make it difficult!

A few weeks ago, we were in the middle of a heat wave. It was so hot outside that I wore a skirt out. I’m normally a jeans and a t-shirt type of girl, but it was too hot for jeans, even for me. Unfortunately, it was not one of those awesome skirts with pockets (every skirt should have pockets!), so I pushed my cell phone into my wristlet wallet so I could carry the food out. I know I’m clumsy, so I was actually trying so hard to be cautious and not drop my waffle fries, of course! Somewhere between the restaurant and the car, my cell phone fell out onto the pavement without me noticing.

EPIC FAIL!

I was in a hurry because I had so much to do! I had just come from Walmart, stopped to get dinner, needed to stop back by home, and then head over to my mom’s for her surprise birthday cake my brother had put together. Now, you’d think I would have learned my lesson before. I don’t have the greatest track record when it comes to cell phones and fast food joints. I once flushed my phone down the toilet at McDonalds. I had the phone in the front pocket of a sweatshirt. I leaned forward for the flush, and in one motion, out of the pocket and down the tubes it went. It didn’t even stand a chance.

This time, I didn’t see my phone disappear before my eyes. I drove all the way home without realizing it was missing. (Mommy brain is real folks!) When I was about to head back out to my mom’s house, I began looking for my phone and couldn’t find it. I assumed it had just dropped to the bottom of the diaper bag and figured I’d get it later. My husband said he’d look while I was away too just in case. (This wasn’t his first rodeo helping me locate something I’ve lost). I looked around in the car quickly and through the diaper bag once I arrived at my mom’s but couldn’t find it anywhere. When I got back, my husband said he had looked around the house and didn’t find it either. So, we did what anyone would do. Call it 100 times, even though the ringer is turned off, and hope to see it light up or hear it vibrate. After the first 99 attempts, I started to panic. I had an extra phone, that wasn’t the problem. I didn’t want to lose all my pictures! I had backed-up most of them, but not all the recent ones… and when you have a 5 month old baby, you take a lot of photos… I mean A LOT of photos of anything and everything baby. Every. Single. Day! Exhibit A:

I was recounting my steps, thinking maybe I dropped it at Walmart until I remembered I ordered my Chick-fil-a dinner on the mobile app in the car, so I had to have had it since then. Finally on the 100th try (ok, 17th, but close enough), someone answered ‘hello this is so-and-so from Chick-fil-a’. The girl on the phone explained that someone had found my phone in the parking lot and turned it in.

So, another day of me dropping things and forgetting things went down in the books, but thankfully it ended with the kindness, and honesty, of a stranger. I am extremely grateful for that person. They could have easily taken it and had a new phone. They could have left it there and let it get ran over. Instead, they did the kind thing and picked it up and turned it in.

I remember one instance where I was faced with doing the right thing – also at Chick-fil-a. Awhile back, I passed a homeless lady on the corner while turning into that same parking lot I lost my phone in. I felt impressed to buy her dinner. Initially, I tried to ignore it, but while waiting in that long line the feeling grew stronger, so I bought an extra sandwich. I took it back to the lady standing there, and she thanked me with tears in her eyes and said ‘God bless you’. I hugged the woman and said I’d be praying for her and left. Awkward me didn’t know what else to do in this situation, but I could tell she was grateful that someone took just a moment to be kind, and that’s all that mattered.

I believe mercy gets mercy, and we all sometimes depend on the kindness of strangers. Sometimes we’re the stranger and sometimes we’re the ones in need. No matter which one we find ourselves in, it’s important to be kind – it costs less that that $5 in our pockets!

“Unexpected kindness is the most powerful, least costly, and most underrated agent of human change.” ― Bob Kerrey.