You are not my competition!
You know that woman that walks into the store with 2 loud and unruly children? She looks like she is wearing jeans straight off the bedroom floor or dirty clothes hamper and a wrinkled up t-shirt. Her hair in in a messy pony tail and no make up. Do you instantly do the silent smile and size-up?
I was thinking today about a recent trip to the grocery store. I am a mama of 4 and if I need something after 3:00 PM they ALL have to go with me. Oh, the craziness I'm about to endure. I wasn't working this particular day. I was in jeans, a t-shirt, and my favorite pair of worn out flip flops. My hair was thrown back in a ponytail and my face only had yesterdays smeared mascara left.
I needed milk, cereal, cheese, lunch meat and bread.
As I drove away, I could not imagine what that woman thought of me. Or how she might have looked at me if my appearance had been different – or my actions had been different-or if my kids had acted differently.
She judged what she saw without seeing… me.
We do this a lot don’t we ladies?
We hope and pray that others will have grace for us, while quietly categorizing and labeling and making split-second judgments of every other woman we encounter.
The silent smile and size-up.
We don’t even mean to do it… well… maybe that’s not true…. Maybe we have just done it for so long that we don’t even notice we are doing it anymore.
And really… it’s awful.
Not my competition… But my comrade in the trenches of life as together we find our way towards grace…
Blessings,
Stacey
I was thinking today about a recent trip to the grocery store. I am a mama of 4 and if I need something after 3:00 PM they ALL have to go with me. Oh, the craziness I'm about to endure. I wasn't working this particular day. I was in jeans, a t-shirt, and my favorite pair of worn out flip flops. My hair was thrown back in a ponytail and my face only had yesterdays smeared mascara left.
I needed milk, cereal, cheese, lunch meat and bread.
As I drove away, I could not imagine what that woman thought of me. Or how she might have looked at me if my appearance had been different – or my actions had been different-or if my kids had acted differently.
She judged what she saw without seeing… me.
We do this a lot don’t we ladies?
We hope and pray that others will have grace for us, while quietly categorizing and labeling and making split-second judgments of every other woman we encounter.
The silent smile and size-up.
We don’t even mean to do it… well… maybe that’s not true…. Maybe we have just done it for so long that we don’t even notice we are doing it anymore.
And really… it’s awful.
Not my competition… But my comrade in the trenches of life as together we find our way towards grace…
Blessings,
Stacey
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