Meyers on the Hood: Before my feet hit the floor.

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Before my feet hit the floor.

"Lord, please help us see this woman as you do, a hurting person worthy of love and respect. Help us treat her with dignity and with humbleness and as the servants we are."
Honestly. That was what I prayed with Rod early in the morning before we got out of bed to face the day.
We knew it would be kind of difficult because Rod and Josiah were going back to a job where the customer was not happy with the job we did for them.
Well.
That saintly attitude lasted about 120 minutes,until she called again, loudly and bitterly complaining again, about a minute detail that a person should not complain about. Ever.
I'm just saying.
Have you been there before?
And although my words to her were calm and pitched normally, the ones racing through my head like they were on fire, were not. Also, the words to my son and my husband later about this same woman, were not kindly either.

Picture a genteel Quaker woman.
On Sunday.
In church.
I did not sound like her.

Because this customer, hurting or not, chose to be critical and belittling to my husband and my son. If my words were weapons, she, and everyone around her, would have been impaled by my wrath.

Because I was on the warpath! Pick on me if you have to, but not Rod and Josiah. They are kind, hard-working, respectful and humble and do not deserve to be treated so disrespectfully.

In a weird twist, when she was finished yelling at them, she offered them a beverage. They declined. We got quite a bit of mileage out of that tidbit, though. Would she spit in their coffee? Poison it? Mostly we just thought how weird and deranged it was that someone could turn on a dime and be so kind when they had, just a moment before, been yelling and angry. She is obviously unstable.
I would never be like that. I'm much more balanced and stable and...and...
hadn't I just prayed for this woman?
Hadn't I prayed for our attitudes towards her?
Oh...shoot pie.
The minute, the very second it got difficult and she verbally attacked my loved ones I was all over her like a mama bear that had never prayed in bed that morning at all. I roared and growled and slobbered and attacked. (Don't even say it doesn't count because I didn't say it out loud to her, says Matt.5:21-22)

This is me on the inside. Sometimes on the outside.

I forgot that I had prayed for her that morning.
I forgot that we had figured she must really be a hurting woman for her to be so mean to people who are working for her.
I forgot that God wants us to be an example to her. A good one, not a bad one.
I forgot that God knows how I feel (times a kajillion) because people attacked his Son with more than words.
I forgot to lay my pride down because he had laid His pride down first. Then He laid down his life.
And it all comes back to the cross, doesn't it?