Extra cupcake????

When we did the RACK challenge a few years ago one of the random acts of kindness I did was to give all of my filled stamp/punch cards away...to people I don't know.  You know those cards you get stamped each time you visit the coffee house (restaurant, etc), then once it's full you get something for free?  I have continued giving these away every since.  It's a simple way to make someone else's day, and it doesn't cost me anything.  

On this particular day I was purchasing cupcakes and I really wanted to complete the card.   With this particular company I have always handed my completed card back to the employee and asked them to pay it forward to a random customer later in the day.  Surprise someone with a free cupcake!  I even purchased an extra cupcake so that I would spend enough to fill out that stamp card.  Nothing wrong with an extra cupcake right?  

Due to a misunderstanding on my part I did not get enough stamps to fill out my card and pay it forward that day.  I was bummed.  Super bummed.  

One the way home that evening I was telling Troy about how I tried to do a good deed and failed.  I went on and on about how depressing it was to not be able to pass over that filled stamp card for a free cupcake.  And on top of that I had spent extra money on a cupcake - money I didn't need to spend.  I'm pretty sure all he heard was "extra cupcake".  Where was that extra cupcake I bought because he was hungry and a jumbo sugar rush sounded perfect to him.

Extra cupcake?  I had given it away.  Someone at work was having a bad day and I invited them to a "cupcake break".  Let's eat a lot of sugar and forget about work for a few minutes.  

And then my brilliant husband says, "so you spent the whole day upset that you didn't get to give away a FREE cupcake, but you had no trouble giving away the one you paid for?  Do you really not see what happened there?"

I was so busy throwing myself a pity party that I didn't even realize what had happened.  Because I had misunderstood the stamp policy I had purchased an extra cupcake...one that I didn't need.  Because I had a cupcake I didn't need (not that I ever NEED a cupcake) I was able to turn someones day around.  

Perhaps God knew my random act of kindness needed to not be quite so random that day.