"Americans are crankier than ever."
"Americans are crankier than ever." was the title of a news story today and I thought about this for a bit and remembered something that happened earlier in the week while in line at our local Wal-Mart.
Emery and I were in line at Wal-Mart when the woman in front of us discovered that she did not have money in her wallet. She ran out of the store embarressed....the checkout person turned on her light for a manager. it was the 10 items or less line, and you could tell the cashier was new. The man behind us, a fellow in his mid 60's got so angry. He yelled over our heads to the cashier to call someone...she said there was no phone there. He yelled at her that she was "worthless".. to this I spoke to him, " no person is worthless". Emery cringed. A young man arrived but needed to get another manager...to this the nasty man behind us, called him "worthless" to which I told both young people, " no one is worthless" and turned to the man behind us and said in a serious but honest tone...." I hope you are not a Christian. " I meant it, but at the same time was shocked that I said it. It was as if the words could not be contained. If he was a Christian he was being a horrible example of one. Everyone in line grew silent and the man became quite humbled, hanging his head in shame. I guess by his reaction, he considered himself a Christian, but perhaps now, not much of a practicing one ! Hateful words are so hurtful. Those young people did not deserve that sort of treatment, no one does.
The man was just so hateful. He was ranting and raving over a small wait in the line. No more than 5 minutes of his time, but he used that time to belittle others, young people who no doubt need good examples in their lives. He used that time to be crankier than cranky, and embaress himself, for what ? 5 minutes time. I felt pity for him and spent a great deal of that evening praying for him, that he would find peace, joy and hope in his life. There are always things to challange our patience, but there is always a way to handle these situations without being nasty or cranky.
We are all known by our fruit....
Galatians 5:22
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
Emery and I were in line at Wal-Mart when the woman in front of us discovered that she did not have money in her wallet. She ran out of the store embarressed....the checkout person turned on her light for a manager. it was the 10 items or less line, and you could tell the cashier was new. The man behind us, a fellow in his mid 60's got so angry. He yelled over our heads to the cashier to call someone...she said there was no phone there. He yelled at her that she was "worthless".. to this I spoke to him, " no person is worthless". Emery cringed. A young man arrived but needed to get another manager...to this the nasty man behind us, called him "worthless" to which I told both young people, " no one is worthless" and turned to the man behind us and said in a serious but honest tone...." I hope you are not a Christian. " I meant it, but at the same time was shocked that I said it. It was as if the words could not be contained. If he was a Christian he was being a horrible example of one. Everyone in line grew silent and the man became quite humbled, hanging his head in shame. I guess by his reaction, he considered himself a Christian, but perhaps now, not much of a practicing one ! Hateful words are so hurtful. Those young people did not deserve that sort of treatment, no one does.
The man was just so hateful. He was ranting and raving over a small wait in the line. No more than 5 minutes of his time, but he used that time to belittle others, young people who no doubt need good examples in their lives. He used that time to be crankier than cranky, and embaress himself, for what ? 5 minutes time. I felt pity for him and spent a great deal of that evening praying for him, that he would find peace, joy and hope in his life. There are always things to challange our patience, but there is always a way to handle these situations without being nasty or cranky.
We are all known by our fruit....
Galatians 5:22
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
Comments
I work at a super busy diner. As a waitress, dealing with cranky people is 30% of my day. It used to hurt me deeply that people could be so cruel but now I don't let it affect me. I used to play the incidents over and over again in my head after work, now I let it go.
I am often asked "Why are you so happy?" I say "Why not?"
I wish that people could just be kind. What happened to the Golden Rule?