On Being Intentional

If you've been reading my blog for awhile, I'm sure you know that mountain biking is one of my favorite things to do. One of my best friends, Danielle, and I try to go as often as we can on the weekends. I've even roped Adam into going a few times ;) Let me tell you...if you want to get your work out on...go mountain biking.

Danielle & I hadn't been biking for like two months. With the holidays, we just couldn't find the time. Well I'm happy to say that this past weekend we finally made it back out to the trails. But something special happened this time.

When we got to the park we got out of the car and started getting our bikes off the bike rack like we always do. As I walked toward the back of my car, a man who was standing across the street yelled over and asked how tall I was. Note...I'm pretty short. I get comments about my height pretty frequently, so I didn't think much of this guy asking me.

I told him that I was 5 feet tall and he then said something that caught me off guard. He told me that he had a bike that would be perfect for me that was just sitting in his garage taking up space. Apparently this bike has a smaller frame, so you have to be shorter to ride it. He described the bike and people...it sounded NICE. He bought it for his daughter, but she never used it. He gave me his card and told me to contact him next time I was going riding at that park.

The funny thing is, on the way to the park that morning, Danielle was saying how much lighter my current bike is than hers. We both have cheap-o Walmart bikes. Since we're fairly new to the hobby, we didn't see the sense in spending a ton of money on fancy bikes. Well when this guy offered to give me his fancy bike for free, we knew right away that this would give Danielle the opportunity to use my lighter bike instead of her heavier one...not to mention my brakes work and hers are kinda of sketchy.

We were blown away by the generosity of this man. We'd never seen him before and yet he stepped out of his own bubble and extended his hand into ours. This situation was really an eye opener for me. It made me realize that lately I have been so stuck in my own world that I haven't really been taking the time to reach out and bless other people.

It really doesn't take that much extra time or effort to make someone else's day a little bit better.
It's really not that hard to put yourself aside and put others ahead of yourself occasionally. This man had no idea who I was or where I was at in life. I can say that his act of kindness really impacted my heart. It restored something that I didn't even know was missing. Whether or not I ever see this man again or actually get the bike from him doesn't matter - I'm just grateful that he was willing to reach out and try to meet a need.

Today I encourage you to be intentional about reaching out to other people. Choose your words wisely. Think about your actions. Try putting others before yourself.

Have a wonderful week, lovelies!