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Wal-Mart with Toddlers & Meeting Cheyenne

by | Jul 6, 2015 | Missions Articles

If you were to rank some of the harder challenges or endeavors in life, going to the store with toddlers has to be near the top. I see all these people on social media talking about Cross-Fit and Marathons and out of their mind diets. While those are difficult for sure, it falls quite short of the task of loading up those bundles of love and entering through the doors of the great unknown, also called Wal-Mart. My just turned 4 year old is now fully potty trained (even at night) and has some personal pride about what an accomplishment that is. He also likes to go to the potty as soon as he enters our supermarket of preference. It never fails. We can no sooner get our 2 year old in the shopping cart and I hear those infamous words, “Daddy, I need to potty”. 

Any parent will tell you that a shopping experience with toddlers is at best, unpredictable! You might have the best behaved kids in the world, but something happens when they see that fresh produce as you enter the store. Any discipline or composure that was previously there has now been replaced with something that we can safely say is not from Jesus. Sometimes it gets so bad, that really the best thing is to stop what your doing, leave all behind and head towards the exit.  Once outside, life will return to normal again.

Your local Wal-Mart is also a place where you just never know who you are going to run into or what conversation you will find yourself in. A couple of weeks back, my family was in the check out line and it was our turn to get checked out. I always try to be very nice to the cashier and make small talk and so on. I noticed that this young lady did not have her name tag on, so I asked her about it in a nice way. She said she had forgot it that day and that I was the first person to notice. I asked her if her bosses noticed and she said no, and then began to tell me how no one notices her around there and she is not appreciated or valued. I did not know where this was coming from, but I sympathized with her and told her I was sorry. My wife then asks her name and she said her name was Chy (said like Shy), short for Cheyenne. We continued talking as she scanned our groceries and soon found out that she had just recently lost her only child (1 month old baby to SIDS). We were not expecting her to be so vulnerable, but we quickly consoled her and gave her some encouraging words. She thanked us and told us we had given her more attention than anyone else that day. As we paid for our groceries, we told her that we would be praying for her and believing for the best in her life. We prayed for her as a family on the way home and have prayed for her several times sense. We also hope to run into her again and choose her check-out line should she be working when we go in the future. We would love to invite her to our home church and hopefully she would come.

You might ask why I would share this story on a missions site and this is why… Whether we are a missionary by vocation or a normal everyday Christian, we are all called to be a light in dark places, Matthew 5:14-15 says, “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lamp stand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.” Sometimes we think of dark places and we think of physical places like a brothel, strip club or skid row etc. Really though, the darkest of places are inside of peoples souls who don’t know Jesus and those dark places are all around us.

Missions starts and ends with the people that are around us, naturally. Look at your friends, family, co-workers, neighbors and cashiers. These are the people that it’s most important that we love, challenge, encourage and at the end of the day, make sure they clearly understand the loving message of the Gospel. You never know who or when you are going run into someone and you are literally the one who is going to change their life forever. As long as I go back to that Wal-Mart, I will always look for the line that Cheyenne is the cashier in. My hope is that someday she will know Jesus and all that He is and offers!

Marvin Slaton – Modern Day Director

You can find other articles written by Marvin by, CLICKING HERE. 

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