Sightings and the Bank Teller

How do you respond when someone speaks unkindly to you? First Peter 1, God teaches us that we have been called to endure grief when wronged, and to entrust ourselves to Him who judges righteously. I don’t know why, but God continually brings irritable people my way. And the one I will never forget was at the drive through at the bank. My 7 year old daughter was seated in the front seat and her 3 year old brother was in the car-seat in the back. Seeing my daughter in the front, the teller sent my receipt and a lolly pop. Realizing she didn’t see my son in the back seat and trying to avoid ISD, Infantile Stress Disorder, I pushed the call button and asked for another lolly pop. What I received wasn’t a lolly pop. But a voice from the intercom arrogantly announcing: “We don’t give suckers to adults.” I don’t know what happens to me when I’ve been assaulted but this strange surge phenomenon occurs within me. So I pushed the button again and firmly announced that the sucker was not for me but for the child in the backseat that she obviously didn’t see from her high position.” I thought that was a pretty good come back until I heard these words. But to understand them fully, you need to know that our family plays a game called “sightings!” Whenever we see evidence of God being near…through an act of kindness or a beautiful sunset, the first one to recognize His presence yells out “sighting!” Well after I made my bold announcement to the teller, Jennifer meekly called out, “Sighting.” I looked at her and ready to enter child imagination I said, where do you see Him? And I will never forget this; she said, “In the kind words that you could have said to this lady, who needed them daddy.”