Yesterday I had an interesting experience. After church, on my way to a friend’s house for a get together, I stopped into a local restaurant to pick up some sandwiches to take with me. I wasn’t quite sure yet how many I wanted, so when the girl working behind the counter asked me, I thought that I would start with the one that I was sure of and she began to prepare it. As she asked me what toppings I would like on my sandwich, she finished it, wrapped it up and stated to me what my total was. It was then that I told her that I would actually like two more sandwiches. By her facial expression and the words that rolled off her tongue directly at me, you would have thought that I had just committed a terrible crime against her. Even though she seemed to be working there alone, this place was not at all busy. The customers were not lined up out the door. There was only one man standing behind me waiting. As I stood there on the customer’s side of the counter my flesh was fighting to lash out at her. My mind went back in years to the time that I was a waitress and taught that the customer was always right. Even though I know that’s not always true, we had to treat the person as if it was. It seemed to me that this woman must have been absent on the day that that was taught to the new employee. I thought about how I am the customer having chosen this establishment to spend my money in, when I could have chosen any other. I think that with the help of God that I am a kind person but am only human and sometimes fail, but just simply misunderstood her question. I had a myriad of emotions flood over me while standing there. I had thoughts of just walking out and going to another place. Also in my human state, I momentarily wanted to throw the one already prepared sandwich across the counter. I felt anger, intimidation, controlled by her, but at the same time God gave me the ability to look at her with compassion.
I had to ask God to help me! Always faithful, He did just that. He enabled me to stand there and politely state which toppings I wanted on my next two sandwiches as she completed my order. I am not saying that this was easy because it wasn’t. Even in the midst of embarrassment, God put around me the cloak of humility. He gave me His heart of compassion toward this person. He gave me His eyes as I watched her and wondered what was going on in her life that day. Maybe her life is not in turmoil and she just has some issues to work on, but I know that I did the right thing in choosing the correct response. After leaving there I just sat in my Jeep for a while and thought about the situation. While still feeling a little angry, I had to give that to Him. I was not going to allow that to take root in my heart. I thanked the Lord for helping me to not lose it on her. I thanked Him for helping me to go to Him and ask Him what I should do. I know that if I would have handled it in the wrong way, I would have had to walk back in there and publicly apologize to her. Because I humbled myself before the Lord and this woman, I don’t have to do that. Instead I was able to drive away from there with a clean and prayerful heart toward her.
“He who is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who is quick-tempered exalts folly.” Proverbs 14:29 (NASB)
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