Christmas Eve Eve

It's a Thursday, the day before Christmas Eve. My job allows everyone to leave at 3:00 and we are off Christmas Eve (since Christmas is on Saturday).  Since I have an opportunity to do some last minute shopping I decide to go browsing and find some stocking stuffers.  I browse a few stores including Dollar Tree but had no luck in finding anything worthwhile for more stocking stuffers, or maybe I just didn't feel it necessary to spend more money on something the boys could really care less about.  Before heading to pick them up I knew I needed to get some gas so had contemplated on going to the Entec on North East Boulevard, but at the last minute decided since Kangaroo was right across the street that I'd go there.  I go to the bathroom before paying for gas and when I come out of the stall, the lady in the other stall asks me if she can use my phone. She was between 25-35, dark hair, middle-high class look about her, and was what appeared to be a desperate situation.  She said she was in a bad situation and continually repeated that.  Her phone had died and she didn't have a charger.  She called someone which I found out later was the boyfriend that left her at the gas station with no way to get home to Tennessee.  Yes, you heard right!  I was astonished.  I couldn't hear their conversation, but when she hung up I asked her if I could take her somewhere.  She said that I could take her to a hotel so she could get a room and figure out how to get back to Tennessee.  She was supposed to be getting her 3 kids at 3:00 the next day.  I told her to get herself together and I'd be outside pumping gas in my green Malibu.  By the time I paid for the gas she had already walked out to the car.  When we pulled off I asked her a price range for a hotel room but as we talked I asked her if she'd just like to come to my house because I have the exact plug she needs for her phone and it'd give her a chance to figure out what to do.  She kept say "I really am normal . This is not me.  I cannot believe I am going through this."

I know what you mean honey!  How many times have I said that exact thing...

          This is not me

          I cannot believe I am going through this

          I really am a normal woman

More times than I'd ever like to admit to and remember! 

So we get to my house and plug up her phone and as soon as it gets a little charge to it, messages and voicemails start popping up.  She calls someone...the boyfriend.  I told her to stay there while I go get the boys and would be back soon.  During the next 2 hours probably, she's talking back and forth to her BF on the phone and texting him.  Here's the story...

She is from Tennessee.  She met this guy there but he has a house here because he either plans on moving here or moving from here (never got that straight).  They had been in Montgomery for a few days and went to the Alley Bar the night before.  He had been telling her that he wanted to see her with another woman.  Typical for alot of men.  She's not bi or gay, but because she wanted to please him, she started taking an interest in women.  So at the Alley Bar she kisses a woman, he sees it and flips the script.  He gets jealous!  He stops talking to her, ignoring her, and treats her as if this is her fault.  {MEN!  They think they want something then when they get it realize they don't really want it and make it out to be your fault.  Crazy!}  I'm not sure what happened between last night and today but he left her at the gas station and left in HER van! 

Through texts he's asking her if she wants to ride back to Tennessee with him.  She wants to because she is getting her kids the next day, but at the same time she's scared to ride with him.  She's in a catch 22.  She her heart out to me about her husband divorcing her the year before right before Christmas, how she went from a high class lifestyle where her hubby was making 6 figures and she was a stay-at-home mom with nothing to worry about, to having to find a place to live and a job that pays like $8 an hour, then THIS on top of that... it was destroying her self-esteem. 

BUT GOD!

Of course this was not God's plan for her to go through all of this, but He did allow me to cross her path and help her.  I spoke God's word and truth into her life.  I told her how God is seeing what she's going through, how beautiful she was to Him and many other truths.  Tears of built-up pain and hurt flowed. She look like a scared little girl who had lost her mommy and desperately needed someone to love her.  Daddy allowed me to be Jesus to her this day.  She started telling me about how she grew up in church and she used to feel so close to God and she doesn't anymore, that she'd stopped going to church and stopped seeking Him.  She said she knew God was watching over her because I was His angel on earth to help her this very day.  And although she fought within herself to make herself ride back to Tennessee with him, ONLY because she had to be home to get her kids the next day, there was a sparkle and a renewing of who God is in her life that very night, in the midst of all her mess.  What topped it off was when we were getting ready for me to take her to his house, I gave her a CD of Pastor Phil's message "Don't Do It Like This" which I made for the sole purpose of handing out to people at where else... the gas station!  She knew without a doubt God made this happen. 

We are now friends on Facebook and although we don't chat much and are not the "best of friends" now, we still keep in touch.  And without a doubt God has a purpose for her life and I want to hear the testimony from her tests!