A 0-5% Tip Sounds Appropriate!

As an introvert, I enjoy staying home and eating meals with my family. However, I like to go out to eat on certain occasions, and I expect good service that begins and ends with a smile. Don’t you? Service with a smile makes it easy for me to leave a 15-20% tip. On the other hand, rude waiters and waitresses have received a 0-5% tip from me. Okay, let me break it all the way down for you. I’ve left the dusty change at the bottom of my purse or a wrinkled old dollar if I couldn’t find the change, just to make my point. Don’t look at me like that. Some of you have left notes, explaining why you didn’t leave a “good” tip. As the customer that is our right!

Well, as I meditated about this week’s blog, I realized this part of me has to die. Help me, Jesus! This will not be easy because I want to treat them how they treat me. However, every time I turn around, Matthew 5:43-48 ESV is all in my business. It states: “You’ve heard it said you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Well, I am far from perfect, but I am serving the perfect one. Jesus is love, so I have that “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they do,” spirit inside of me too. (Every believer does.) For all I know, a kind gesture, or in this case a respectable tip when a person doesn’t deserve it, could be another opportunity for me to represent Christ here on Earth. I can’t allow my emotions to rob me of that chance. What happened to love? What happened to mercy? Doesn’t it apply to this situation? To be honest, I wish it didn’t because it’s hard for me to give my money in the best situations, and now we’re talking about giving money under the worst conditions. Sometimes waiters and waitresses serve their customers when they’re angry. Sometimes waiters and waitresses serve their costumers when they’re disappointed. Sometimes waiters and waitresses serve their customers when their afraid. Sometimes they serve them half -heartedly. Sometimes the environment is so overwhelming that they just can’t see their way through, and their emotions get the best of them. Okay! I get all of that, but what does that have to do with me?

Well, when you think about it, we serve the Father like that sometimes. We serve him when we’re angry about the world around us. We serve him when we’re disappointed about our circumstances. We serve him when we’re afraid and doubting his abilities to help us. Let’s face it. As believers in Christ Jesus, we serve him half-heartedly sometimes, and he sent his son Jesus to die for our sins. Yet, he isn’t nearly as hard on us as we are on waiters and waitresses. Just think about it. Then, go to the Father and pray about it. I know I am!

#Soul Searching with Our Father#