Words to Live By - Patience and Tolerance
Remembering to Remain Kind in Difficult Situations
When I first heard about Steemit, I was intrigued enough to take a look and was delighted to discover that there is an active and growing Christian community here. One, I might add, that appears to be very kind with one another. While still contemplating how best to contribute to the community, I met family members at a local restaurant to celebrate my Mother's birthday and encountered a challenging situation in which I struggled, and partially failed, to exercise biblical principles and character traits that I hold near and dear to my heart. As I am fond of applying biblical teachings to real life situations, I figured why not begin there.
My husband, daughter, and myself met my Mother, Aunt, and Uncle, all of whom are in their seventies, at a local restaurant. A restaurant that my Mother had chosen as her most recent favorite. In preparation for the celebration, my Daughter made her Grammy chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter icing and was excited to give them to her. We arrived at the restaurant to discover that it wasn't quite yet open and we patiently waited, and chatted, outside. When the restaurant's start time arrived and passed, I waved to the hostess inside to let her know that there were customers waiting outside.
The hostess was obviously irritated, slammed the inside door open, unlocked the outside doors, and promptly turned around and walked away in a huff, returning to her hostess station with an angry look on her face. She didn't open the door nor greet us in anyway. So we all went in and my Mother teased her by saying, "You don't look like you're happy to see us." The hostess rolled her eyes and completely ignored her to which I responded by saying, "You appear to be having a rough day so far." The hostess responded by pointing to my Daughter's cupcakes and saying, "First of all, you can't bring those inside because they're homemade and you didn't buy them at a store."
It was at this point that I lost my temper and used an expletive in my response to her after which she walked away and sent the Manager to speak with me. I recounted the entire incident to her, including the expletive, feeling justified, in my anger, to continue the use of foul language. We were eventually seated, without the cupcakes, and enjoyed our food and our time together.
After calming down, however, and reflecting on the incident, I regretted those choices. The hostess, although unpleasant and rude, could be grappling with something deeply painful in her own life. She may be coping with some sort of loss or health issue and may simply need patience, tolerance, and love from others. She may need others to hold a place of kindness and understanding open for her, while she's struggling to provide that on her own. Hopefully, the next time I encounter a similar situation, I will remember that and act accordingly instead of giving in to my own anger!