Be sure when you try and teach others to follow the “Golden Rule”, and how they should show love for their fellow man, you will be tested.
I pastor the Cornerstone Church of God in Norfolk Va. and teach at a Christian School in Norfolk as well. I give daily devotions to my high school students and I try to teach the students to treat others with respect and to forgive when they have been mistreated. Of course being a Pastor you would think I would have this love and forgiveness thing down. Oh, Well.
On Monday last I ventured the typical Wal-mart run. I should have known better because it was the first of the month and thats when Uncle Sam sends out government checks and pays all of his employees and being in a military town with several bases all around thats a lot of paychecks. It had slipped my mind that it was the first of the month so, here I go. I am in a particularly good mode that day and I begin shopping which entails weaving in and out of the crowed isles, and dogging those who would cut you off to get the bread isle first. I finally finished my shopping which took me a lot longer than I wanted and I headed toward the checkout lines. To my bewilderment there were 7,000 people in the lines and only 4 out of 20 registers open. I found what I thought was the shortest line and fell in. As I was waiting I noticed that the young lady who was about 6 people in front of me was separating her items into 4 different orders and paying for each one separately. It took forever. She finally moved on and my mood was still OK. The line moved down till there was only one person in front of me and just like that the register broke down. The store manager came by and moved us to another line. By now what should be a 10 min. run had taken 40 min. My good mode was fading. I finally got checked out and was on the way to my car. When I got to my car I found that someone had placed a shopping cart very near my car and in the space beside me. I checked my door for dings and all was well. I loaded my groceries, started the car and began back out, when another car began to pull into the space were the shopping cart was while simultaneously blocking me from backing out. The person in the other car sat still for some time and finally rolled down the window to ask a passer by if they move the cart. The passer by moved the cart directly behind my car and just kept walking, while the other car proceeded to pull in beside me. My mode change once more and I began to get a little heated under the collar. Just 30 sec. before I got in my car, I had helped another lady by taking her cart over to the outside rack (I was being a good boy) just to come back to my car and be treated like I was. Well, I got out of my car, glared at the person in the other car (her window was rolled up thankfully) and I said loudly, “what in the world?” I grabbed the cart, stomped over, slammed it in the rack and came stomping back to my car. I began mumbling to my self, ” Treat someone nice and look what you get.”
I calmed down as I drove home, and as I was pondering the events of my quick Wal-Mart run which took an hour or so, the Lord reminded me ,” I guess you better learn to practice what you preach.
And that is a “Real Life Word.”
