Did I ever tell you about the time I lost a $100 bill?

It was several years ago and I stopped at a yard sale on my way to the grocery store.  My kids were little, I was a SAHM mom at the time, and money was tight.  I had a $100 bill that I put in my pocket ( I know stupid move, it should have gone right into my purse and wallet).

I was heading to the grocery store, but being the frugal mom that I was I could not resist stopping at a yard sale.  While browsing the yard sale and keeping an eye on my kids, I some how got distracted, and as I went to get my keys out of my pocket, I dropped the coveted, needed, $100 bill with out realizing it!

I got in the car, and headed to the grocery store….BUT about half way there that still small voice called out to me to check for my $100 bill.  And as I checked my pocket, suddenly panic began to surface, and I freaked, it was GONE!!!!  I turned the car around, in movie chase scene style and headed back to the yard sale.

I meekly said to the woman having the sale, suppressing my panicky voice the best I can, “Did you by any chance find a large sum of money?”  She then gets this funny look on her face that did not bring me any comfort.  She says, “yes I did, I saw the money on the ground next to a woman and asked if it was hers.  The lady replied she must of been careless and dropped the $100 bill, and said it was hers!”    Ahhhhhhh, that liar, bum lady just took MY money!  I was distraught, we needed that money!  I gave the lady at the yard sale my phone number just in case, the liar lady had pangs of guilt and returned to the yard sale.

It was at that point I asked the Lord for wisdom as to what to do, and in a fluke move of desperation I arrived at the doorstep of our local township police station, both kids in tow,  I told  my story to  a kind cop  who listened, took my phone number and said, “I’ll see what I can do.”  Thinking nothing would come of it I went home to sulk.  But I also felt that I had to do everything I could do to solve my crisis and leave the rest up to the Lord!

About 45 min later………….I got a phone call from the police officer.  He didn’t say much, but just asked if I could stop down at the station.  I arrived with in moments, and he told me this story.

” I went back to the yard sale and talked to the lady who had the sale.  She described the car to me that the woman who took the bill had been driving.  It was an odd colored car and I had just noticed it for some reason at a yard sale I had passed on the way over.  I left right away and went to the yard sale where I had spotted the car…..and it was still there!  I inquired as to whose vehicle it was.

The lady who owned the car, walked up to me and said immediately, “I was going to take it back.”

“Take what back?” the police man inquired.

“The $100 bill, I was gonna take it back.”

The police officer then smiled at me, and said
“sure she was going to return it!”

He also reminded me that this kind of thing never happens and that I am fortunate!

I thanked him many times and my kids hugged him!

But ultimately I was thankful to the Lord for providing for me.  Since that day I have learned a lot from that  incident

#1 I should do everything I can possibly do, but in the end it is the Lord who provides and guides.  I often say in  referring to that incident, I did everything I could possibly think to do and left the rest up to the Lord.

#2 – Get bills in 20’s!

#3- Never put big bills in your pocket!

Trust in the Lord with ALL your heart and lean not on your own understanding Proverbs 3:5