What would you do if someone stole your wallet and you caught them red handed?
Unlike most people who would immediately involve the authorities, when Jessica Eaves’s wallet was stolen she found a way to resolve the problem herself.
The mom, from Guthrie, Oklahoma, was shopping at the grocery store with her four children (all under eight years old) when she reached for her cellphone and realized her wallet was missing.
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She scanned the aisles, found the man who had been walking closely behind her just before she realized her wallet was gone and approached him.
Eaves told Fox News that recently she had be researching global mission work and in that moment she realized mission work could start right there in her community.
Jessica Eaves Decided To Give The Man Who Took Her Wallet A Second Chance
"I said to him, 'I think you have something of mine. I'm gonna give you a choice. You can either give me my wallet and I'll forgive you right now, and I'll even take you to the front and pay for your groceries,'" she told Yahoo.
Or, alternatively, she would report him to the police.
He reached into his pocket and gave the wallet back to Eaves.
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Extremely grateful for her help the man repeatedly asked for forgiveness and explained his situation, telling eaves that he's broke and has children and that he will never forget what she did.
"He started crying when we walked up to the front," she told Yahoo. "He said he was sorry about 20 times by the time we went from the pickle aisle to the front. He told me he was desperate."
She spent $27 on his groceries, which included milk, bread, bologna, crackers, soup and cheese.
“I hardly ever carry cash in my wallet,” she told Fox News. “But when I walked up there, and I saw his total was $27-something I opened my wallet and I had $28 in there. And I thought, oh my gosh this is totally God at work.”
Helping Others Is What Jessica Eaves Does
Helping others is a major part of Eaves's life. She's a full-time college student, United Way employee, wife and mother of four, and she still finds time to work with the Christian Outreach in her community, spending up to 12 hours per week volunteering.
“I’ve been in those situations too. I had a very dark childhood. But I had people in my life that really lit up my world too,” Eaves told Fox News. “So I think that it’s important when people are struggling that we be kind.”
Eaves told Yahoo that her and her brother lost their dad to suicide when she was seven but she always remembers something he told her.
"I remember him telling me years ago that no matter what I become in life, to always, always be kind," she told Yahoo.
Eaves not only showed kindness, but she's shown us what forgiveness and giving someone a second chance looks like.
