Don't Take My Blessing - Storytelling Sunday

Miss Linnie looked at me intently and said, “Don’t take my blessing. I know God wants me to help you.” Reluctantly, I took the check she held out to me. I knew I could buy a refrigerator for much less than five hundred dollars, but she insisted that I take the money and buy a good one.

I had recently moved into a rent house due to a separation from my soon-to-be ex-husband. It was a nice house, but it did not have a refrigerator or a stove. Mama had her old stove in the garage and was going to let me use it, so all I needed was a refrigerator. Miss Linnie, an 80-year-old member of the church where I worked as a secretary, had asked about the house. When I mentioned that it did not have a refrigerator, she insisted on buying me one. I did not want to take the money because I had a little bit of money in a savings account which I could use to purchase one. But she persisted and the comment about taking the blessing God had for her was the reasoning that convinced me to take her check.

I had never had anyone outside of my family help me in such a huge way before that day in the late of summer of 2000. I told Miss Linnie I could never repay her or measure up to the kindness that she had shown me. She just smiled and said that someday I would be able to bless others and that would be repayment enough. I thought there was no way I would ever be able to give someone five hundred dollars. But I underestimated God and His great compassion and forgiveness.

Over the past ten years, Robbie and I have been blessed in many ways, often financially. We have helped numerous people, some that we knew, others that we didn’t. And, yes, I have been able to give $500 to someone, not for a refrigerator, but to pay rent and keep her in her home for another month while she worked to find a job. And now I know what Miss Linnie knew . . . God’s blessing is much better than the money in the bank!

That Kitchen Aid refrigerator sits in our recently remodeled laundry room today. It’s been with me for 11 ½ years, in 5 homes throughout the state of Texas, and now serves as our extra refrigerator – another reminder of God’s many blessings.

Melissa A. Gross
February 4, 2012

Our laundry room remodel is basically complete; we just need to mount a few items on the walls and re-hang the door. I'll be sharing photos of the completed room very soon. Each time I move my refrigerator, I am reminded of Miss Linnie's generosity. I'm also working on another layout/story about my washer & dryer - watch for that coming soon, too. This post brought to you as part of Sian's Storytelling Sunday. Click here to read more February stories.