I can just hear my dad now, "6 waters please!" That is what he said EVERY time we went out to eat. I grew up in a family of six where both of my parents worked at a Christian school. (That equals no money.) We didn't eat out very often. We occasionally went to the local Arby's after Sunday service. If you brought in your church bulletin you got your food half-off. My dad still ordered everyone waters. He was an expert at feeding us all for about five bucks. For whatever reason, in my mind as a kid, drinking water was not cool, especially at restaurants. I thought it made us look heaven forbid, poor - I specifically remember when we were in a fast food line I would try to purposely stand next to another family that looked so much cooler than ours and actually ordered pop. (My parent self is telling my childhood self "girl...you should be thankful you even get to go out to eat. There are starving children in Africa!" someone just should have smacked me.) I like blame this whole childhood experience for my current addiction to diet coke. (Verses I am a weenie in enduring headaches when I do not have my caffeine.) My addiction is no secret. It was actually a matter of prayer when I went to Thailand because I was seriously worried about what I would do going cold turkey off of it for 3 weeks! Isn't that awful? I KNOW!!! If only my dad would have ordered me a pop at McDonald's when I was 11...
Now it seems like it is more popular to order water at a restaurant since that's the healthy way to go, and not to mention drinks are up to about 2.50 now at any given sit-down eating place. My sweet husband knows not to limit my pop consumption but I try to use discretion (sometimes) when we eat out. Anyway, while we were in Missouri a couple weeks ago we decided to go to Olive Garden with everyone including my old roommate and her daughter. Yes, a moment of insanity thinking we would enjoy a nice time of visiting with Elisabeth in tow.
We get to Olive Garden. We have a hour wait. We are not there 2 seconds and Elisabeth spots a table of food that she practically lunges out of our arms to grab. So we go over to the mall and hang out for a little bit. We get back before our time was up, but they had called our name and we weren't there. Lost our table. Wait again and get 2 tables side by side. That's fine. It's time to order. My kids know by now when we've hit the "we're strapped for cash limit and we better order water." We are waiter's favorite kind of customer. (ummm, no. not really.) We all order the cheapest thing on the menu - endless soup and salad, or endless pasta bowls. And everyone orders a water....except one person. (not me this time ;)) Well, as soon as the one soda was set down, the kids thought it would be funny if everyone shared it and stuck their straws in it and sucked it down and asked for another one. They had four glasses of empty pop lined up. Mind you, they were sitting at a table across from us and we didn't know this was happening until we looked over and saw them drinking like this.
Well...that could have possibly ticked the waiter off. Or it was Elisabeth dumping her goldfish all over the floor, or Elisabeth dumping a cup of ice water all over Chris within the first 5 minutes, or Elisabeth banging silverware on the table while screaming and providing entertainment and pleasant noises for our dining partners. Long story short it took well over an hour to get even our first bowl of soup. Even the best behaved toddler, teenager, or adult cannot be good waiting for food that long when we are starving. I was ready to get rude and snippy. My sweet roommate who has had a gentle spirit the entire 24 years I have known her said in her sweet soft spoken voice, "I'm sure ya'll just ran out of soup tonight because it is the first night of cold weather. Maybe they are just making a fresh batch.." (That is just sooo Kaari.) I am ready to stand up on the table and shout "I am about to let my one year old loose in your kitchen if our soup isn't out here in the next minute!!!" My husband gets up and politely seeks out the manager and explains our dilemma. We quickly get our food and the manager gave us our ENTIRE MEAL FREE!! My kids blurt out "we could have ordered pop!!"
Grace. Its what we should extend to others. I know the Lord blessed us with a free meal because of the graceful way Chris and Kaari handled it. (With my comments and attitude I probably had flies in my soup.) Kindess . It's what we should extend even when we have every right to be otherwise. Grace and Kindess - it's who Jesus is.
"Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt...so you know how to answer every man.." Colossians 4:6
Things have changed about my dad. Now when he hosts a family dinner, he will easily spend more on meat than what we spend on a weeks worth of groceries. When he knows I'm coming, they always have a case of diet coke in the garage fridge for me. When we are with him at a restaurant, we order anything we want - including pop.
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