An exercise in the Fruit of the Spirit

This week I took pictures of the girls meant to be portraits for our wall. My sister-in-law had already taken theirs, had them printed at Costco, and hung on the wall. Absolutely beautiful!! So I attempted to do the same thing.....at Sam's Club. The girls cooperated and I ended up with nice pictures of each of them. So I uploaded them and picked them up the next day. Much to my disappointment, they did not turn out. First, the "sheet" of wallets that I ordered consisted of "2" prints. Just 2. And the 8x10's were very blurry. Not crisp, sharp, bright colors at all. I'm sure the blurriness had to do with the setting/resolution on my camera. But the muted colors and overall dullness??? Bummer. I was disappointed to say the least. But, I got over it. Not the end of the world.

While there I decided to pick up some cheese. It's such a bargain there! And then we headed to check out. This is where the fun begins! There were two open registers. Both had long lines. So we picked one and waited. I'm a patient person. The girls and I chatted and laughed as we waited. I finally got close enough to put my "2" items (pictures and cheese) on the conveyor belt! Yeah!! But then the lady in front of me handed the cashier a slip of paper with a number on it. And the next thing you know we're waiting for a manager that never shows up. Finally the cashier leaves her station in search of ???? After more than 10 minutes she arrives with a computer box. And we're back in business!! Whoot whoot! But then the discussion begins as to whether or not the lady should buy a warranty. And even more than that is which one is the better deal. There is much talk, debate, discussion going on in front of me. By now two lanes at the other far end of the club have opened up, but the lines are still so long that it hasn't relieved anyone down at our end. And people are getting upset. There's nowhere to go that looks any better than where we're at. How much longer can this transaction take anyhow?? She's just about done. Right?? Wrong. The lady makes her decision and when it's scanned into the computer.....you guessed it.....ERROR! So yes, we get to wait for a manager again. This time not quite so long though. She fixes things and we're good to go. But oh no.....now the lady's credit card doesn't work. And now the manager's on the phone. So we get to wait.

FINALLY, someone opens the lane next to us and very loudly tells us that she will help the next person in line. But as we walk over there, someone comes from behind and pushes their cart right past us, almost running over my daughters toes. Lovely. People are mad, they don't care about etiquette, they just want OUT! Cashiers are nervous and not making eye contact anymore, they've stopped apologizing, and customers have reached their limits.....no more Mr. Nice guy! lol In an effort to stay out of the path of an angry person, I moved back into my position and waited. Thankfully, the cashier saw everything and took our items off her conveyor belt and placed them at the front of the line next to us. So we were able to check out. Lest you think this saga is over, let me tell you it isn't. By this time we had waited nearly 40 minutes and I now had to feed the girls dinner before an outing that night. So I wrote my check for $10 over to get hot dogs to eat on the way there. Can you believe she forgot to give me my $10 and shut the drawer? At this point what do you do? Both cashiers stopped and looked at me with horrified faces. So I laughed. I looked at my three daughters and told them that it's easy to show the fruit of the spirit when everything goes your way. It's when NOTHING goes your way, that true character is formed! And in that instant, I felt all the frustration and anger that was trying to well up inside me the past hour....just slip away. I was free. I passed the test!!

PS. We ended up waiting for a manager that never did show up. The cashier next to us finally just gave us $10 out of her drawer. Thank you!! And why didn't we just leave? Good question. I guess because I just kept thinking we were almost done. (I can just see my brother shaking his head! LOL)