Try Not to Smack the Mean Lady

Ugly Mole and All
You know the mean lady at the cash register, she might even have an ugly mole hanging off her nose...the one with the smug attitude. She grabs your stuff, the stuff you just carefully spent way too long choosing from the shelves throughout the store. She carelessly tosses it  down the conveyor belt (right on top of the fresh meat juices that were never wiped clean with disinfectant)... then she has the nerve to throw a delicate item into the same bag with 24 large potatoes and 2 family size cans of tomato soup!

YOU FEEL A NEED TO SMACK HER
At the very least you feel a need to call her out (You are using up your hard earned money after all. And this is a paying job-SHE BETTER WORK HARDER FOR YOU!) Who the heck does she think she is?

WAIT, let me answer that...
She is most likely a person who is HURTING
EVERYONE is hurting to some extent
EVERYONE has a story

Often I throw that meat on the conveyor belt
I even let it go all the way down without disinfecting it. I sometimes snap at my children when they've done absolutely nothing wrong. My husband gets a scowl when he arrives home from a hard days work, rather than a hug and kind word from me. Once in awhile I  stand in line at the store in silence, appearing to have a disgruntled look on my face. Often, I'm in serious physical pain. I've been told I look mad. I look mean. My bushy eyebrows are dark black. I have my dads deep brown-eye serious look. I forget to smile. Or it's just hard.

I could use someone to just be nice to me.

I used to respond concurrently
Hey, if they're being nice then I'll be nice back. (Boy does that sound like I'm four years old as I write it.) If they give me a compliment then I'll give them a compliment. If they ignore me then I'll ignore them.

These days...I feel the need to ask the grumpy lady her how she is doing
I might even seek out something nice about her and let her know about it! One day several years ago I stopped giving my very own grumpy neighborhood grocery store cashier the same screw you attitude and decided to ask her how she was doing. Fast forward to today, we speak like best friends and are even excited to see each other when I shop. It's crazy, that very simple gesture years ago changed the course of the future-and now it makes my daily ritual that much better. WOW! Such an unexpected, ongoing blessing. Simple concept and idea, but I tend to forget it consistently in my daily routine.

Did you mistakenly think that I felt well?!
I have good days. They are AWESOME. I get to get up out of bed! I get to talk more with my kids (one of my ALL time favorite things to do: have coffee and conversation with my children!!)

But did they or you or anyone think that me being up and about meant that I felt well??!!
Let's not get crazy!

What you see on the outside doesn't always reflect what's going on the inside.

Nobody wants to hear the gory details
I'm aware of that.
BELIEVE me you will NEVER know ALL my gory details. Even if you think I'm telling too much, there is plenty you won't ever know. Emotionally OR physically. But know this: that just because I can drive my car; doesn't mean I don't have to fight for a handicapped spot or hobble into the store to find a motorized buggy. Just because I have a smile on my face; doesn't mean my joints aren't hot with pain or my intestines are working properly and I have to know exactly where the bathroom is at all times. Just because I made dinner; sometimes means that I had to be in bed all day just to be able to gather the energy to lift the pans and open the cans. And non of this includes the stresses, trials and tribulations of external everyday life outside of physical pain.

What if we all took a risk and just said something nice...what if?

Pleasant words are like a honeycomb,
Sweetness to the soul and health to the bones. 

Proverbs 16:24 NKJV

I choose to be a blessing to someone today