Philippians 1:27 – “Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.”
Have any of you taken notice recently of just how little courtesy remains in our everyday lives? We seemed to have tucked away in some unknown place, our ability to express common courtesies to each other.
While shopping in our local mall recently I was standing at the rear of a very long line at the check out. A young mother was in the line about four people ahead of me. She was frantically trying to control an effervescent toddler and very unhappy screeching baby. She had only one item in her cart, a pack of diapers.
The 1-10 item express checkout was not open. She chased the toddler repeatedly, tried bribing him, threatened to tell Grandma on him, and even promised a surprise if he would just stop running away and would hold onto her shopping cart . All her pleas fell on tiny deaf ears.
The squirming baby was really getting into it now and gave a relentless chorus of screams and screeches that had amazing volume. The long line of customers were showing early signs of agitation, and the poor mom’s face was as red as a beet. Things worsened considerably as baby became intensely quiet, looked down at his sibling and vomited all over the toddler. Immediately the choral membership increased to two and it was most evident that these two little darlings did not require microphones.
To add to mom’s horror the man standing ahead of her made an insensitive comment loud enough that the entire line up heard it. Mom gasped as she was trying to clean off baby with what appeared to be a single ply tissue. Another unkind comment was made by a female voice somewhere ahead of the discourteous man, and with that, the mom broke into tears and left the line, dragging the now smelly, howling toddler with her. He had now decided that he would stand in the line up, and look pitifully like the victim of this terrible other son of his mother’s. I watched as many people in the line up shook there heads and some even had the nerve to tutt as this poor girl ran for the door.
Well, my goodness! Could someone at the front of the line not have offered to help out by allowing this dear soul to go to the front of the line? Surely the cashier had to have noticed the calamity. Could she not have requested help and had another register opened? It was just simply the lack of courtesy that surprised me the most. How dare the fellow ahead of mom be so unkind – only to be backed up by a bitter female voice pushing the young woman to tears.
Have we become so complacent to others needs that we just don’t care? We don’t seem to consider our behaviour anymore. We seem to have developed the attitude of “who cares? Just don’t inconvenience me.”
Finally, after waiting my turn and paying for my purchases, I noted that no thank you was offered by the cashier. In fact, no eye contact was made. It was as though I was invisible. Perhaps it was slightly cheeky of me, but I politely said “you’re welcome” to a stunned cashier. No expression, no acknowledgement ... nothing.
I doubt this is the kind of behaviour and conduct that the gospel of Christ speaks about. What does it take to say please, thank you and smile? What does it take to help out whenever we can? What does it cost us to show respect, kindness and concern in situations like this one in the Mall?
Can we not strive for patience when things are not quite the way we expect them to be? Maybe we should think twice before we lean on our horn when the fellow ahead is not driving as fast as we think he should. Maybe we should offer the other fellow the empty parking place, even though we were there first. Maybe, just maybe, we could give up our seat on the bus, even though our feet are killing us.
Perhaps we will allow a frantic mom a place ahead of us at the check out, and maybe even offer to hold the baby while she rounds up her wandering toddler and pays for her purchase. Something to think about, isn’t it?
Until next time, make every ordinary day extraordinary … be courteous, conduct yourself in a worthy manner. You may be surprised at how a little courtesy will change the day for someone. You may be surprised at how a little courtesy will change yours as well.
God Bess You!
