Can't Sleep. Guilty Conscience

I'm writing this post for strictly selfish purposes. I guess I wanted to blog about this just so I can go back and read it to remind myself to act when I'm impressed to do something.

There's only one way to put this... I feel stupid. Really stupid.

Dave and I try to go out on a date once a week. With him being in school and both of us working full time, it's hard to get quality time in. Our date night is usually designated for Saturdays.

This week we decided to go to dinner (The Old Spaghetti Factory at Trolley Square) and then go bowling. The bowling alley was pretty busy, and we had to stand in line for quite awhile. In front of us was a man and his daughter. They were soon joined by his wife and three more kids. Dave and I both commented on how cute this family was. It was finally their turn to get set up on a lane. The kids were SO excited. As they were lacing up their shoes, I could see the man trying to communicate with the cashier. I don't think he spoke English, or at least not well, so the older daughter was trying to translate. It was obvious the man didn't have enough money to pay. I felt impressed to help them out... But I just stood their like a Greek statue. Or an idiot. Whatever you want to call it. We watched as the mom told the little kids to put their shoes back up on the counter. They had the most disappointed looks on their faces. The family walked off, and we never saw them again.

It was our turn to pay. We were surprised to see how much it was just for the two of us. I'm sure paying for a family of 6 wasn't cheap. As we were walking up to our lane, Dave commented on how we should have helped that family. I told him that I had the same impression.

We played 1 game, but we didn't really enjoy it because we felt so bad about the situation.

It's not like we couldn't have helped them out. It wouldn't have been a financial burden for us. As I watched the whole thing go down, I wasn't thinking selfish thoughts as to why we shouldn't help them, I just didn't act. And now I feel horrible about it. I felt like Heavenly Father gave us an opportunity to help some people out, and we let it slip through our fingers. I hope He will bless me with more opportunities like this. Dave and I both committed to never let something like that happen again.

So this is why I can't sleep. Sorry this post is kind of a downer, but I guess I wanted to tell someone about it. And that someone just happens to be everyone who reads this blog. So there you go.