Preparation · Faith and Marketplace

Preparation

My kid has a friend who stops by the house after school to play with her on the weeks he is with his mom. His mom used to sit in the car at the park with him after school before they commute back home. Eventually, we told them they were free to stop by the house, and the kids could play while I finished work. Earlier in the week, the kid asked my daughter if he could walk home with her on some days because it would help his mom out. We did not think anything of it at the time. Today, when he stopped by, his mom explained what the kid was referring to.

She is a single mom who shares custody with the father. Apparently, there is a court order requiring the kid to attend school in this district, even though both parents live in different cities. Since the father had other kids in the district when the order was approved, she was stuck commuting him to school every day. With her job, there are two days every week when she has custody, and she has to pay a service to pick him up and take him home after school.

She said her son had the idea to ask if he could walk home with my kid those two days and hang out with him until she gets off work, because it would save them some money and give him someone his age to hang out with after school. Now she did not know that just the day before, our kid had talked to us about all her friends and their academic strengths and weaknesses, which she considers when deciding who to partner with on class assignments. She had described this kid as a friend she could depend on to get work done, so the decision to help was easy for my wife and me.

While his mom talked to me about her situation, I spoke with her about resources that might help with the court case. We also discussed her job, how to leverage her strengths better to create opportunities, and her newfound journey of faith, trust, and fellowship. Even though I was technically still on the clock, it was an easy decision to lock the screen and make space on my calendar to listen and be present for the conversation.

Hopefully, the relationship between the kids will benefit their family as much as having a friend at school benefits my family. God’s timing is so funny because both the Faith in the Marketplace and the Designing Your Life book club discussion I facilitated on Monday provided all of the resources I needed in that moment to hopefully add value to this single mom trying to make it.

2 comments