CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A police officer in North Carolina is expressing gratitude after a teenager recently approached him to offer a prayer.
“To be honest, I was pretty stunned. It was not what I was expecting,” Charlotte-Mecklenburg officer Brad Potter wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday.
He says that he was sitting in his patrol car at the gas station several weeks ago when he saw 16-year-old Caleb Turner approaching him. Potter thought that the teen was likely going to ask for directions, but what he did ask for “floored” him.
“Can I pray for you?” Turner asked.
“I stammered out an ‘of course’ and I sat there, in a bit of awe at the heart of this young man,” Potter recalled. “To go up to a complete stranger and ask to pray for them. What an amazing act of pure kindness.”
After getting over the initial shock, the officer suggested that the two pray together.
“We clasped hands, and we prayed,” Potter outlined. “We prayed for our safety, for the safety of my brothers and sisters in blue, and for the safety of our community.”
The officer then walked Turner over to his father to express how impressed he was with the teen.
“[H]e smiled that proud smile a parent loves to show off, saying simply, ‘He does this kind of thing all the time.’ By this point, I wasn’t surprised,” Potter said.
Turner’s father took a photograph of the two.
But in the weeks since that time, Potter says that the kind gesture has stayed with him.
“I implore everyone, please take a lesson from this young man. Spread a little love around the world,” he wrote in his post. “We are at our best when we open our arms, our hearts, and our minds to each other. We are at our best when we show compassion and care for each other. We are at our best when we show love for each other.”
Potter and Turner reunited on Friday, and WFMY-TV spoke with Turner about his deed.
“I wanted to share Jesus with him,” Turner relayed. “I didn’t know if he was a believer or not, but I thought doing something like this might make someone’s day a little better.”
He said that he is glad he decided to take time to pray with officer Potter.
“It was awesome,” Turner stated. “It’s a great feeling to have.”
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