I was visiting with a friend today, it was a very cold and rainy day here, so we were changing out of our nicest church clothes and putting on what we could for the rest of the day. You see when it rains there is mud everywhere since where they live is off of a dirt road that leads to a dirt trail, dirt steps carved into a hillside and so on. For me I have many choices, for my friend she did not.
I reached in my basket and pulled out a nice warm pair of socks and then my tennies and she grabbed her husbands flip flops from the ground below. She commented on how warm and fuzzy my socks looked and then also about how warm my feet must be in those shoes. She said that she is used to having very cold feet.
After a few questions I realized that she, her husband, her two brothers and her father all share the same shoes. Their shoe sized vary about one size in either direction so sometimes they are squished into a shoe and other times they are swimming in a size or so bigger than they really should be wearing. Now, I don't think that there is anything wrong with sharing things with those that you love, nothing at all.. It just impacted me that she was used to wearing what ever shoes were available and if her feet were sore or cold then that was just to bad.
It clicked in my head when I got home because the guard at my house has been wearing his wife's nice sandals. Something with jewels, for sure a woman's dressy sandal. At first I thought that she must have worn his as she had to hurry out of the house but I had been noticing him wearing her shoes for over a week now and did not want to ask about it in fear that I might cause great embarrassment.
This small moment of understanding for me has caused me to think twice before I dig through the 12 pair of used shoes that I brought, to match an outfit or trying to find that exact pair for the walking that I will be doing for the day. I am tempted to give all that I have away. Is that the answer, I am not sure...
How many pairs of shoes do you have? When you wear them can you wiggle your toes or are you squished into a size to small? Do you have to walk over 5 miles to take your children to school and then get to work yourself? How would your feet feel in the shoes you are wearing right now if you had to wear them every day for the next 4 months, walking everywhere? How many pairs of shoes do you really need?
Can you think of someone that could use your shoes? It might change a life, or at least the life of someone's feet.
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we have shoes! we have shoes we were trying to 'sell' at our garage sale a few months back. we'll send them out! then, you can find people to give them to, please! i think we could even have a shoe drive in our neighborhood! people are always giving their shoes to goodwill, and they just sit on the shelves. but, if we send them out to you, you could actually give them out to people who have a real need. and, of course, socks to go with the shoes would be very important. we'll see what we can do and you let us know what you can do.
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