In the Flow with Healing Waters

You’re having a really busy day, driving from place to place, you didn’t plan ahead and you’re hungry. You pull into the nearest fast food drive thru and place your order. You pull up to the window, pay for your meal and drive home as quickly as you can to devour your food. You get in the house, sit down to sink your teeth into the juicy burger that you’ve been anticipating only to find out that they forgot to put the burger on the bun! 

1. You get super angry, get in your car, drive to the fast food restaurant, storm in the door and swiftly lay into the person at the counter with a loud voice, harsh tone and anger. The cashier apologizes for the inconvenience, gives you a new burger, you check it before you leave and storm out the door to go eat your burger. You’re feeling upset inside, mad at everyone, frustrated, and irritated. 

OR

2. Your initial response is to get mad, but you pause for a moment and realize that it was a mistake. You know that you’ve made mistakes before that have inconvenienced people. You think about how you would want to be treated when you make a mistake. You bring the meatless burger back to the restaurant but instead of yelling at the cashier, you say what happened. You are slightly annoyed, but have composer and understanding that things happen. The cashier apologizes, gives you a new burger and throws in 2 cookies for your trouble. You leave the restaurant feeling good because it was handled with compassion, grace and respect. 

One situation, two scenarios. 

Frustrating? Yes, very much so, but you get to decide the outcome. How you are in the situation will be the difference in the outcome. Were you inconvenienced? Yes, but is it really that big of a deal in the big scheme of things? More than likely, the person making the burger didn’t leave the burger off the bun on purpose. (If they did, that’s rude and a different blog.) 

Let’s be honest, we’ve ALL made mistakes. Think back to a time when you made a mistake. Did someone call you out on it with intentions of making you feel badly? Worse yet, did they call you out in front of others? Did they yell at you causing you to feel embarrassed and ashamed? When a mistake is made, it wasn’t done intentionally. We are human and mistakes will be made. 

I realize that some mistakes are a lot bigger than the above situation, but you are always in control of how you are in every situation. Next time you are inconvenienced by someone else’s mistake, think about how you would want to be treated. 

Dealing with mistakes in the flow,

Deb