I stopped by a store this morning for a biscuit on the way to work, and this lady behind the counter was really being rude. I have this thing about customer service (especially since I do it for a living), and she was just mean!

So I was about to land-blast her, but instead of saying what I wanted to say, I said “Are you having a bad day or something? ‘Cause you’re just being plain ugly.”

She teared up and started telling me that she has an 11 month old boy who’s been sick for almost a month – throwing up, coughing and not sleeping. She’s worried sick about him. She pulled out two perscriptions that she’d been giving him that she had to refill today, and said they just weren’t working.

So here I was  making a judgement about a lady I had never seen before by what I could see with my eyes, and I was totally wrong.

How often do we do this? How often do we “kill” a person according to what we see in front of us without having the grace to “offer” something instead?

I got half of it right. I asked if she was having a bad day. But then I just HAD to throw that thing about her acting ugly in there.

I encouraged her to take that child to the doctor again, and told her to be strong and give it to God. I was able to turn it around this time. But what if I’d just land-blasted her, and added another weight to what she already had?

We’re to bear one another’s burdens, not be so self-consumed and “me oriented” that we pile up more on a hurting person’s shoulders.

God help us to see this and change the way we respond to people in our daily lives.