07/24/2024
I'm only sharing this for two reasons. 1. To inspire others to do the same and 2. To share my testimony on how good God has been to me and others...
Today I woke up and checked notifications on my phone. I then opened my IG app to the home feed of random people I follow and lately other content that IG suggests I see. B/R Kicks had a video reel that showed a man in a shoe store offering a kid a challenge. "For each push-up you can do, I'll give you $1 off the price of shoes that you're buying today." I felt this video was so dope! I was truly inspired, so much in fact that after I got out of class today, I headed to the mall.
Recently I have been buying shoes for toddlers in my friends/family at our local mall ( Weberstown Mall ). I went to the Shoe Palace, Kids Foot Locker and two other shoe stores to look for deals and the best shoes. During that time in the past two weeks, the management and staff at the kid's footlocker have been the best! I'm talking, A1 customer service, asking you what they can help you with when you come in to the store, no long waits in line, ordering shoes for you with free shipping to your house when they are out of stock, and a lot of genuine smiles from top to bottom.
So when God led me to bless other people today, I asked some family I knew had grade school kids and after getting no response, I headed right to kid's locker to see if it was possible for me to do the (I'm just going to call it that) in store for any parents who may be doing back to school shoe shopping today.
The staff was all for it, so the first mom and daughter I asked said, no. It's not like I haven't heard no before (I used to work in sales) but that doesn't always mean stop at the 1st no. 😉 I went to a family of 3 buying two pairs of Jordan 12's and asked if they would do the challenge. One of the two girls said she couldn't, but the other said she would as the mom encouraged her. The other daughter who said she couldn't do any asked if she could do modified push ups and of course the answer was yes. The staff, other customers, and I all counted out the push ups of both girls and cheered them on; together, they pushed out $67 push-ups! As promised, I paid $67 of the total cost. We kept doing this for an hour and a half! People thanked me and expressed their gratitude and because I am only able to do this because of what God is currently doing in my life, I made sure to tell them, "love is love" (because I truly mean what DMX meant in his song) and express to them that God is good! I explained to the store staff how truly inspired I was to do this today and I had hoped that others would also feel inspired and give back to others as well. One customer did 45 push ups for his toddler shoes and wanted to add to the budget I had in mind today to give out in order to keep going. The manager in the kid's footlocker also felt inspired and volunteered to also do the same for 3 other families in the store while I was there. It was great!
Like my favorite gospel verse of all time stated, "if you're the only one being blessed, you're in the flesh... Spread the wealth." ( J Moss ).
