patience

Compassion Check!

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Mom and I went shoe shopping last Saturday and had a very interesting experience.  I was shopping for a new pair of work shoes which need to be skid resistent for my job and which I can’t find just anywhere.  When we got there it was VERY busy, lots of customers and only 2 employees working.

When I found the shoes I wanted there were none in my size, of course…until we looked on top of the shelf.  Neither of Mom or I could reach it, but there was a little shoe bench in our aisle.  I of course slid it over and climbed up on it to get the box in my size.  This would have been fine except for 2 reasons:  First, there were signs posted everywhere saying “PLEASE ask for assistance with items on top!” AND I got caught by the store manager.

He stopped in his tracks and yelled down the aisle, “Ma’am!  Get off the bench and let us help you!” To which I calmly replied, “I’m fine…ya’ll were too busy..I didn’t want to bother you”.  His reply was “PLEASE get off!  We’re not too busy!  If you fall off, I will have to fill out a report!”

Really?? That was the best he could do? Not “if you fall you could get hurt”, not “I don’t want you to get hurt”, or “I didn’t realize the urgency of your situation, let me help now…no…it was all about his report!  There was no trying to understand my siituation, just his. As I paid for the shoes and we left the store, I was still astonished by his words, and I was mumbling about how callous and uncaring his attitude was.  And then God spoke to my heart and reminded me of a very important truth – compassion is His heart, and yet it is in very short supply today.

How many times, God asked me, had I reacted to someone or a situation with equal disregard for the people involved?  I thought of moments even just recently where I had and I was immediately convicted.  How many times have I seen a fellow believer fail and think, AGAIN??  Or thought about how they were blemishing our church’s reputation by their actions?  Or how often have I learned of someone falling spiritually, and thought first about all the trouble and hardship it would cause that person’s family, or our church?  Really, we might actually have to FILL OUT A REPORT!  As in, not a physical report, but the time, effort, and discipline of restoring a situtation.

And how patient am I when someone ignores all the SIGNS!  God’s Word is full of them, we teach about them, preach about them, ask God to help us understand them, and STILL…most of us at one time or another ignore them.  And my response has often been “seriously??  Didn’t you see the sign?”

I share all this to say what God said to me….there are too many times in our lives that we are too busy, and we don’t offer help, but when we see someone struggling we are quick to pull out the rule book, AND let someone know that they are a BIG inconvience….instead of offering to come help right then, or to look at the situation from their perspective.  May God help us ALL to stop this right now, and to begin to be more compassionate with one another!

Positive Air

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My hubby has a wonderfully wacky sense of humor, as this photo shows!  A few years ago I had to start using CPAP at night 100_1061because I was snoring “loud enough to wake the neigbors!” and I was basically spending my nights trying to breathe, instead of sleeping.  This is also known as sleep apnea, and it can lead to being forced to sleep in a separate bedroom from your hubby, and oh yeah, a shortened life.

For you who don’t know, CPAP actually stands for Continuous Positive Air Pressure,and the process basically ensures that you have a continual airflow all night, keeping you from snoring (the non-medical explanation).  And of course since Robert thought I looked hilarious with it on, he wanted to make sure my stuffed animals did not feel left out!  He left this for me to find one day after he left for work, and it very much made my day.

So I began to think about what would happen if we all had CPAP.  No, not the machine….but continual positive “air” around us. It is a scientifically proven fact that children thrive in a positive atmosphere, and the best teachers try to make that happen.  But in today’s world, it is very hard to hear as adults about the positive. As a matter of fact, we have even taken that very word and made it negative – as in, “I’m positive that won’t work out”!

Science has also proven that being positive brings great health benefits to the person practicing it.  And in my particular job, it is “commanded” that I be positive to my customers and to my co-workers…it is just simply expected.  That doesn’t mean I live in denial of those customers that may try my patience and all my goodwill..that’s just not going to happen sometimes after the third “oh wait I also need….” as I retype their order again.

However, overriding all this is that the Bible has a lot to say about being positive in a negative world.  Proverbs 15:13 says, “A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance”, and Proverbs 16:24 also says that pleasant words are sweet to the soul (paraphrase mine).  So, let’s practice some CPAP in our worlds – and when it’s tough to do, remember I Corinthians 5:57 “Thanks be to God who gives us the victory…!”

Two Lane Trouble!

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9e036ce4cce7f1daf056f5040063bdc2[1]I will preface this blog with two thoughts.  First, yes I do spend a LOT of time at Walmart.  Second, there is a bell that rings every Wednesday morning (lol!) for all senior adults to proceed to our local grocery store (which has Wednesday only bargains) and then to finish up at Walmart!

Now that you know those things, as I was in Walmart today, I headed toward the checkout only to find a near senior adult riot occurring.  There were only 2 “regular” checkout lanes open, but our Walmart now has “self check”…and those machines were almost totally unoccupied!  And the griping and complaining could be heard everywhere near the checkout – “I can’t believe they only have two checkouts open”  “This store doesn’t care about its customers” and “they must be cutting back again, since there are NO cashiers!”

Now I understand that seniors and technology do not always go together.  However, they were not the only people in line.  There were all ages represented, and each line was 10 deep. And when I went to the self checkout, it scanned all my groceries, let me use my coupons, and took my debit card..and I was out the door before about half of those in line.

How does that relate to anything?  Many believers are the same way!  They want to come on Sunday morning, occasionally on Sunday night or Wednesday night.  And then, they complain.  They complain about the service being too long.  They complain they are not cared about.  And, they are the first ones to say, “I just don’t feel like I am growing spiritually” or “something’s just wrong with my spiritual life”.

AND YET!  God never intended for us to “stand in line” all the time, waiting and complaining, and not receiving the “service” from Him that we need.  He is ALWAYS there.  Just like those self checkout lines, we can “speed up” our growth, our happiness, our contentment, and our usefulness – all we have to do is “self help” ourselves!  We can self help through the Bible, His written and inerrant Word, and through prayer.  There is never a line for either of those, you can just step right up, and receive.  And I have yet to see a local church, at least here anyway, that is so crowded that you cannot find a seat and “self help” yourself by becoming part of a local fellowship!

So, if our relationship with the Lord, seems lacking, or stale, or stalled, it may be time to look at our self help habits, and see what we are missing out on!