SHOW ‘EM WHO’S BOSS!!!

Actually, I was already working on another subject matter to post, but something happened over the weekend (on Saturday to be specific) that I think I should share with y’all… I had a great weekend by the way. Yep, a weekend away from all obligations (and believe me, there are many of them) that take my focus off what should be my focus. OK what I’m saying is that I spent the entire weekend, ALL of it with my husband! Oh yes, it was a fantastic weekend 😀

So… on Saturday, we did the “1^st waking up” by 5:10am for our morning prayers. My husband led in the Scripture reading and mini sermon and asked me to round off everything with prayers afterwards. Me, I don’t like leading in prayers especially when I’m sleepy. I’d rather be led so that I can catch snoozes in between intervals when I’m required to respond “amen”. Anyways I asked him if he had any prayer request and he raised a very profound prayer point: “Let’s ask God for the grace to be thermostats and not thermometers as we go about our activities today…” We finished the prayers and began part 2 sleeping. I love Saturday mornings! 😀

What I did not realize was that the thermostat/thermometer prayer point would show up as a test later on that day. Hmmm… did I pass the test? I don’t know, you tell me…

Fast forward to around 1:00pm that same Saturday … My husband and I went grocery shopping at our favorite supermarket on Bode Thomas, Surulere armed with a list of things we needed. We wanted to buy a blender and since that was the most important thing on the list we decided to start with that. So off we went to the electronics section where we saw this blender we liked. The other stuff had their price tags on them but our blender did not appear to. I looked around and spied a sales rep sitting idly, so I called out to her “excuse me, how much is this?” Gesturing in a way that seemed insolent to me, she responded “the price is there na”. I glanced at the blender and did not see any price, so I responded coldly “the price is not here ma, if it was I would not have asked you”. She dragged herself out of her seat and came over to where we were standing still insisting that the price was on the blender. In a split second I thought to myself “what is wrong with this person? Did I come here to beg? Am I not going to pay for services rendered?” and that was when I lost it. I voiced my thoughts to her angrily, making sure I gave her lectures on customer service 101. My husband kept trying to pacify me “babes calm down, breathe… calm down” and for some reason that angered me further! Why could he not support me? Didn’t he see that this rude woman needed some talking-to? Ahn ahn was he ganging up with this stranger against me, his wife? All this drama happened within the space of say 3 minutes but it almost ruined the remainder of the day.

I quickly got over my anger with the sales rep after we left the supermarket but my husband’s presence reminded me that I was still upset with him. He didn’t even apologize sef! I was angry. On the journey back home, we did not speak to each other. Gone were the playful banter and the jovial mood we were in when we left the house. About halfway home, I asked myself “come, why are you even angry  sef?” I suddenly realized that I was mad at myself. Mad that I allowed the sales rep to ruin my day. Mad that I did not choose the option of “a soft answer turns away wrath”. Mad that I asked God for grace to be a thermostat and not a thermometer.  I mean, who was I kidding? SMH… A thermostat is a temperature regulator, it controls and cannot be controlled… it is in charge… it is the change agent. I was a thermometer… allowing the woman’s insolence to affect me and reacting to it. I felt so ashamed of myself. I did not represent Christ well at all. I made my husband look bad and all other Christians too. I sing in my church choir. A horrifying thought crossed my mind “what if the same woman walks into my church tomorrow and sees me up stage “lifting up holy hands”?” Wow, I was so ashamed.

Later on when we were home, I decided to patch things up with my husband (I can’t stand it when we are not talking) and he told me some bitter truths 🙂 … It wasn’t easy listening to what he said sha, but I’m glad I did. He voiced all the afterthoughts I had on our way home in a gentle but firm way. Here’s what he said:

• Always be in control of your emotions: Yep, the thermostat/thermometer thing. Ring a bell? *sigh*
• Always remember that your life is not yours to handle as you wish: Think about how your actions would affect others… your family, your friends, other Christians and most importantly, God.
• Always give others the benefit of doubt: His point here was that the sales girl may not know about all the customer service “jargon” I was preaching at her. Her own is that I just come in, buy what I want and go. Abi na?
• Always be considerate: He reasoned that the way I treated the sales rep may have ruined her day too. Hian! My husband is such a nice man o; I’m trying to be nice like him. Maybe one day…

Well, I accepted that I was wrong (I already knew I was anyway) and apologized to my husband and we made up…  😉 hehehe

Truth is, in all we do, we need to show who’s boss. Our lips? Our negative emotions? I think not!

What thinkest thou?