Kindness and Hustlers

Today I witnessed two separate instances of human nature in the Aldi grocery store parking lot. The first was a younger woman who handed her shopping cart (with required quarter still intact) to an older woman who was about to enter the store. I smiled to hear the older woman still remarking over the small act of kindness to me once we were inside the store. "She said, 'Don't worry about the quarter! You don't see that often!' " I nodded and smiled.

Then, when leaving the store, I was approached by a woman that had been hustling people in another grocery store parking lot a few weeks before. "I've met you before!" I said with enthusiasm and recounted part of her story. When she realized that I was not giving out money today even after she added on the part about her mother passing away, she smiled good-naturedly and went on to the next person. I offered her some of my groceries, but she wasn't interested, saying they'd stick in her teeth.

I wondered what makes some people want to give, and some people want to see what they can get.

I pray that our family falls into the first category more often than the second.