What Ya See Is What Ya Get

Sometimes ME = BAD

Well, I really shouldn't say "ME", but rather "MY MOUTH".

Or maybe rather "MY ATTITUDE".

The other evening I was with a group of ladies and we were commenting about people's bad attitudes in the arena... some parents.... some coaches.....

(Let me tell ya.... some folks in the hockey category can get "PRIT-ty FEIST-y"!)

Anyways, one lady mentioned a situation where a coach was literally screaming and yelling at one of his OWN players during a game (and the player would have been a young boy, maybe 12 or 13 yrs old). The Ref ended up throwing the coach out of the game for his behaviour (which, in my opinion, was a WONDERFUL thing to do! In fact, I'd have banned him from coaching any future games..... again, MY opinion!)

So that got us on the topic of how mean people can be and I started ranting to them about this young arrogant-silver-spoon-fed/-mommy-and-daddy-buy-me-anything-I-want/-oh-everybody-look-at-me-I'm-so-cool-and-beautiful/-Miss-Head-of-the-cheerleading-squad teenaged whippertick girl that I saw in the McDonald's restaurant last week.

I literally stood there with my mouth hanging open watching her. She was SO completely rude to one of the young teenaged boys who was simply just trying to see if she had yet been waited on. He was most polite and courteous, and SHE was MOST.... MOST..... oh I can't even type the adjective that I'm thinking of, lest my blog be categorized under RESTRICTED!

Honestly folks, it was all I could do to not turn and say to her, "And just WHO do YOU think YOU ARE, Miss Goody Two-Shoes!" Without a word of a lie, it took ALL I could muster to not reach over and slap her Maybelline-dressed face! I honestly had a whole conversation happenin' right there in my head, trying to decide WHAT on EARTH I could say to this girl in a Christ-like manner, and LET ME TELL YOU THAT THERE WERE NO CHRIST-LIKE THOUGHTS IN MY HEAD AT THAT MOMENT.

If THAT had've been my daughter, I can tell you RIGHT now that her hiney would've been about four shades darker than her Cover-Girl lipstick!!!!

You can just tell when some kids have that "It's All About Me" attitude, and THIS girl had it.

I was SO angry! (Can you tell?)

That was over a week ago and I'm STILL on fire about it.

Well, I was spouting off to this group of ladies about this young girl, and this particular group of ladies has never seen me get all riled up about anything. But they knew I was cheesed.

However.... and this is the point of this post..... when I got back home, I had to think to myself, (or perhaps the Holy Spirit was gently nudging me), "Did you act in a Christ-like manner in front of those women?"

Ahhh, Lord...... come ONnnnnnnnn...... I was defending that poor little boy behind the McDonald's counter who was just simply trying to do his job.

And then I hear the Holy Spirit say that despite what this young girl said and despite how she acted, it does not give me a license to go around and speak meanly about her.

(Dagnabbit!)

So I confessed to the Lord that my attitude was not proper and that I likely didn't leave a good impression of The Lord in the eyes of these women, despite that the young girl should've been slapped upside the head. I still shouldn't have been complaining or gossiping or chewing nails and spitting rust.

I decided I would watch my mouth from now on and not act the way I did that evening in front of those ladies.

Fast forward four days.

Me and my big mouth.

I did it again.

Different story.

Different people.

But same scenario.

A woman who has just simply got under my skin regarding the whole issue of Blake's health and the paperwork and yada-yada-yada. This woman has a REAL problem with communication skills and phone-side manners!

(Again, who am "I" to judge and act as God.......)

But since I "think" I have some type of authority to chew about people behind their back, I once again start discussing this other scenario with a couple of ladies today. As I drive back home, I think, "For CRYING OUT LOUD, I JUST did it AGAIN!"

Sorry, Lord.

Me and my big mouth.




So I thought about this and decided that it's really not my mouth that's leading me into trouble..... it's my attitude. If my ATTITUDE were in it's proper place, then my mouth would follow.

It's not hard to have a good attitude when all is fine with the world; however, it IS VERY hard to have a good attitude when people hurt you, or they hurt someone you love, or when you see them hurt someone you don't even know, like the McDonald's boy.

And God forbid anyone hurt our children! Mothers are pitbulls with lipstick!





I don't like to be hurt.

I don't like to see others get hurt.

I don't like to see people who are nice to your face but hurtful behind your back.

I don't like phoney-baloneys. (And, yes, I know it's spelled "bologna", but then it wouldn't have rhymed properly).

I think that I am pretty much a "What-ya-see-is-what-ya-get" kind of woman. I'm not perfect, although at one time I might have thought I was. I'm not the kind of person to go out and hurt anyone. I'm not one to have to "be-in-the-know"... in fact, I'd really rather you NOT gossip with me or give me details because I only have a limited number of brain cells left anyways and I'd rather use them up with concentrating on my own family's business and not everyone else's!

I know people who would NEVER say a word about anyone else, yet they are VERY sneaky at probing for information because they feel they need to know what's going on in everyone else's life, other families' lives, the folks they work with, the people they go to church with..... yes, that's right.... church people. Surprisingly, SOME "Christians" are the WORST regarding this!

Anyways, I don't want to get back on the complaining band wagon; I guess I just wanted you to know that I'm not perfect..... that what you see is what you get. I'm a work in progress. Joyce Meyer always says, "Little by little". We aren't going to reach that "taming of the tongue" overnight, but little by little we get closer to the goal.

If I replay the McDonald's situation over in my head again, I guess I COULD have approached the smart-mouthed young lady and simply said, "Excuse me, but that young man is just simply doing his job by asking if he could take your order. Please don't be rude to him."

And as for the other scenario, I COULD have just told the woman on the phone "I'm sorry, this is our first time in dealing with a chronic disease and what we need to do with regards to ensuring the paperwork is completed properly so our son can receive the medicine to save his life. I would appreciate you being patient with me."

My first reaction is simply to bite their heads off. However, I need to remember to "dress" myself. Just as I get up each day and put on my pants and a sweater, I also need to put on some clothes of kindness and gentleness. Colossians 3:12 says, "Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience."

So, even though I think people can pretty much read me like a book and know what I'm like and know where I stand on things and know that "what ya see is what ya get", I'd like to think that "what ya see is slowly changing into a better person".

There's no time-warp machine to get me there quicker.... it's certainly a process.... but little by little, I think I'm gettin' there.