Skip to main content

Take A Breath

As I sat in the Chick-fil-A drive-through line, a child's voice caught my attention. The boy sounded as if he were pleading to his mother about something. Looking over my right shoulder, I could see a woman, a young boy, and a young girl walking to a newer model Honda van. The kids each had balloon animals given to them by a local artist inside the store.

The pleading seemed to relate to not wanting to leave the store but I wasn't entirely certain of that. Lowering my passenger window, the audio was clearer.

"Shut up! You're embarrassing me!" My heart sank. Telling a child to shut up is bad enough but clearly this woman was more concerned about the people around her and their opinion.  She mentioned another sentence about the need to leave and that the children were causing a scene.

Take a breath...

Really, lady? The kids are causing the scene? You are making this worse! This was a meltdown in progress and it wasn't going to end well. Some stress, some news - something - had sent this evening spiraling out of control. My heart thought of the kids who had likely been enjoying the food and balloon artist moments ago.

Take a breath...

The woman screamed, "Shut up!" At least one child began crying. Her goal was accomplished: slaughtering the child's will to speak and reduced to tears. Bravo, lady. Whap, whap, whap, whap! The sound was clearly a child's bottom, arm, or leg being hit with a hand. I prepared my phone to write down her license plate. I was going to report the driver for child abuse, endangerment, or something.

Take a breath...

A moment later the van drove by and the angle made it impossible to read the license plate clearly. I was mad at myself for not getting out of my car, engaging the situation, or least taking a picture of the license plate from a better angle.

But would that have solved anything? Would it have really solved the issue? Calling the police may have been a solution to simmering this situation down but the problem was deeper than her anger lashing out through voice and hand.

Assuming she was their mother, I know as a parent I've had bad days. Comparing bad days doesn't accomplish anything because my bad, your bad, and her bad days are no different in God's eyes. For me, the key thing was to seek forgiveness from God and from Georgia when I acted foolishly. Children need to know you can make mistakes and they need to know how to seek forgiveness.

More importantly, the key thing for me and most parents in this situation...take a breath. Instead of launching into a situation with a raised or exasperated voice...take a breath. Walk away from the situation if needed. Then, come back with a cooler head. Those seconds can result in minutes of better understanding instead of minutes of further verbal or physical issues.

I prayed for that woman then and on the way home. I prayed that her anger become peace, that she forgives herself and apologizes to the children, that whatever is going on in her life is paled in comparison to a God that loves her. I prayed that whatever stress she is under would be lifted and placed at God's feet. I prayed that if she didn't know Jesus - that she would not be able to escape people being brought into her path to share His love.

Next time, please, take a breath...

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

I Can Honestly Say Jon Is My Best Friend

At the beginning of this year, these were Kate Gosselin's words in an interview with Today's Christian Woman : "I can honestly say Jon is my best friend." Kate also says, "When the babies were born, I was well aware that our marriage could crumble. It was close to doing so at times. But we survived that first year. And then the second one. And then each year after that. Even though the issues have changed, it's never gotten easier. "But Jon and I are more determined than ever that we're in this together. We've told our kids many times that we're always going to be a family. There are no other options. Sure, Jon and I take our stress out on each other, and no, that's not always good or healthy. But we work hard as a team every day."

Separation of Church and State

The phrase "separation of church and state" has been used so frequently in the news (and perhaps I hear it more being in DC/Baltimore region), that I seriously question if anyone really understands the origins of the phrase and how it's been polluted? For many, I'll assume they think it means keeping church or religion out of all government and government supported entities. Wrong.

So God's Work Might Be Displayed

Rousing from an unplanned nap near 1am Saturday, my cellphone blinks in receipt of a message. I assume it's spam to the work email account. Instead, it's a text message from 12:22am. It reads: Baby Pierce got his angel wings today at 3 o clock. News began to circulate around 4pm and trickled to Caringbridge at 11:40pm Friday night. An outpouring of love to the family was already in progress on Facebook and continued through the weekend.