I’d never heard her laugh like that before and it caught me a little bit off guard. As I was clocking in and headed to the front of the store after my lunch, I had no idea what the source of her laughter was.
With an obviously puzzled look on my face she then began to tell me about the smell. Between spurts of laughter she managed to say that as she walked past, he was putting on his coat and it smelled terrible.
I didn’t know quite what to say. I’d always heard the old saying “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all” – but I’m not sure how effective that really is. You see, the “he” is a really great guy. He’s fast at his work, intelligent and one of the hardest workers we have on the team. He is always willing to do whatever needs to be done or whatever is asked of him.
And I just stood there, sort of laughing alongside of her.
I didn’t add any thoughts, opinions or personal input, I just stood there, chuckling along at the awkwardness of the situation. I mean, she didn’t do anything wrong AND he wasn’t standing there… or at least I didn’t see him standing there.
After the 30 second interlude I headed back to the front of the store when it hit me, and man, did it ever hit me. Like in the old cartoons, when an anvil drops out of the sky and smashes the cartoon into the ground, yeah, that was me.
I was reminded in that next instant of Mark 12:28-31. Now I’m not going to pretend to be a Bible scholar… I didn’t just think “OH, MARK 12 SAYS…” and then recite the scripture to myself. I wish I was that good. I did remember the story though, and the principle behind it and when I looked it up when I got home, I found the reference.
In context, it is when Jesus was outside the temple teaching and all these guys were trying to catch him in a trap… so they asked Him what the greatest commandment was. He responded that it is most important to love the Lord with ALL our heart, soul, mind and strength. He then quickly followed that up with “The second is this: love your neighbor as yourself.”
Yep, that was the anvil moment. I don’t know why it hit me so hard, but it did. I had heard similar laughter for similar reasons, but it never caused the anvil-reaction like it did yesterday night. What if she were laughing about me? How would I have responded then? What if she were talking about the best man from my wedding, or one of my brothers? What would I have said to that?
I guess for the most part that old saying is still true, “If you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say anything at all”, but is silence really golden? Is it really better to stand by and say nothing when you have the opportunity to say something? As I am apparently learning it’s also important to know when to use the voice that you have, to use the influence you’ve been given and to love your neighbor as yourself.
And that's right on target.
With an obviously puzzled look on my face she then began to tell me about the smell. Between spurts of laughter she managed to say that as she walked past, he was putting on his coat and it smelled terrible.
I didn’t know quite what to say. I’d always heard the old saying “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all” – but I’m not sure how effective that really is. You see, the “he” is a really great guy. He’s fast at his work, intelligent and one of the hardest workers we have on the team. He is always willing to do whatever needs to be done or whatever is asked of him.
And I just stood there, sort of laughing alongside of her.
I didn’t add any thoughts, opinions or personal input, I just stood there, chuckling along at the awkwardness of the situation. I mean, she didn’t do anything wrong AND he wasn’t standing there… or at least I didn’t see him standing there.
After the 30 second interlude I headed back to the front of the store when it hit me, and man, did it ever hit me. Like in the old cartoons, when an anvil drops out of the sky and smashes the cartoon into the ground, yeah, that was me.
I was reminded in that next instant of Mark 12:28-31. Now I’m not going to pretend to be a Bible scholar… I didn’t just think “OH, MARK 12 SAYS…” and then recite the scripture to myself. I wish I was that good. I did remember the story though, and the principle behind it and when I looked it up when I got home, I found the reference.
In context, it is when Jesus was outside the temple teaching and all these guys were trying to catch him in a trap… so they asked Him what the greatest commandment was. He responded that it is most important to love the Lord with ALL our heart, soul, mind and strength. He then quickly followed that up with “The second is this: love your neighbor as yourself.”
Yep, that was the anvil moment. I don’t know why it hit me so hard, but it did. I had heard similar laughter for similar reasons, but it never caused the anvil-reaction like it did yesterday night. What if she were laughing about me? How would I have responded then? What if she were talking about the best man from my wedding, or one of my brothers? What would I have said to that?
I guess for the most part that old saying is still true, “If you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say anything at all”, but is silence really golden? Is it really better to stand by and say nothing when you have the opportunity to say something? As I am apparently learning it’s also important to know when to use the voice that you have, to use the influence you’ve been given and to love your neighbor as yourself.
And that's right on target.