Posts Tagged: waiting tables

“Patience, the Gift You Give to Yourself”

On January 9, 2018 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

Tuesday, January 9, 2018

“In your patience possess ye your souls.” (Luke 21:19, King James Version, italics mine)

“By your endurance you will gain your lives.” (Luke 21:19, New American Standard, 1995, italics mine)

It was a fairly rough evening at Bob Evans last night.  It started out dead as a mortician’s embalming room.  However, we got several large parties at about the same time.  One lady (party of two?), wouldn’t even be seated after complaining about the slow service.  (Confession: I hope that she had to wait even longer at another restaurant!  I’m not proud of that thought, but there it is.)

It is difficult for me not to let the impatience of others flood my own heart, and mind, and soul.  I need to be a less permeable dam.  However, if I let an impatient person make me an impatient person, all you’ve got are two impatient people.  And such impatience can and does spread faster than the flu.  Soon, there will likely be a lot of impatient people.  Probably, impatience is even deadlier than the flu.

Another way to look at this is to say that I need to avoid theft.  Other people’s stuff is other people’s stuff.  I wouldn’t think of stealing other people’s money or electronic devices.  Why should I steal other people’s emotions?  Why should I steal someone else’s impatience?  I’ve never tried to fence anything stolen, but I suspect that I would not get much for my own impatience, much less for someone else’s.  I wouldn’t even know who was the unscrupulous pawn broker who would deal in stolen emotions.

Patience is not simply a virtue.  Patience is a wonderful gift I give myself.

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“Resentment: Creeping Charlie of the Heart: Overcoming Resentment, Part 2”

On April 22, 2017 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

My post yesterday dealt with resentment and how to overcome it.  However, I am discovering just how deep the roots go, and how wide this obnoxious plant called “resentment” goes in me.  Resentment relates to my emotional state very much like creeping charlie relates to my yard.  Resentment stays low, spreads rapidly from the roots, and chokes out everything but itself.

For example, . . .

Last night, I was waiting tables at Frisch’s.  We weren’t very busy, so I was cut from the servers’ map early.  No problem there: Get your side work done, and go home to your sweetheart, I said to myself!

However, we got a slight late “hit” of customers.  I was rolling silverware, the last thing I had to do before I clocked out.

Two gentlemen were standing, waiting to be seated.  I kept thinking to myself that someone should greet and seat them.  Of course, I was someone.  However, I said to myself that someone else who was still on the servers’ map could seat them.  The guys eventually walked out.  I felt bad, but it was only later that I realized that this was yet another manifestation of resentment.  I resented being cut early, resented helping my fellow-servers make some more money for themselves.  I was wrong.  No excuse.

I read a brief, but helpful, article about resentment.  It had a wonderful quote.  Here it is, along with a link to the whole article.

“Resentment is the cheapest and least legitimate form of anger. It is all emotion and no strength” (https://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-resentment.html, accessed 04-21-2017.  The entire article is short and helpful.).

Here are a few other quotable quotes that I found helpful in fostering and focusing my desire to overcome resentment.  They are all from this very fine internet site: http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/resentment, accessed 04-21-2017.

“As smoking is to the lungs, so is resentment to the soul; even one puff is bad for you.”
― Elizabeth Gilbert

“Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die.”
― Carrie Fisher

“They all laughed when I said I’d become a comedian. Well, they’re not laughing now.”
― Bob Monkhouse, Crying With Laughter: My Life Story

“With each opportunity before me, God presented me with a choice. I could accept His offerings, His wisdom, His grace. Or I could choose to hold onto the pain, the anger and the resentment a little longer.”
― Sharon E. Rainey, Making a Pearl from the Grit of Life

“At the heart of all anger, all grudges, and all resentment, you’ll always find a fear that hopes to stay anonymous.”
― Donald L. Hicks, Look into the stillness

Well, that is enough for now.  There’s a lot more wisdom in those quotes than I’ve lived out.  And foolishness is wisdom that is not being lived out.  (I think that’s original, so it probably isn’t.)

What sayings or methods have proven helpful to you in your own personal battle against resentment?

 

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KEEPING A SWEET ATTITUDE IN DIFFICULT SITUATIONS  

On August 17, 2016 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

 

Keeping a sweet attitude in difficult situations is not easy.  However, it is very important.

Last night, the dish guy didn’t show up to work his shift.  My manager made a bunch of calls, but nobody could/would come in.

So, I volunteered.  Fortunately, I had only worked at that job for an hour, when my manager pulled me off.  “We need you on the floor, serving,” he said.  I didn’t argue!  I have a lot more appreciation for dish people now.

Sure enough, we were very busy in the dining room, with a lot of guests.  The whole evening was like that, until about forty-five minutes before closing time, when we went fairly dead.

Then, there was a massive amount of bussing, out-work, and silverware to do.  By the time this sixty-five-year-old body was out the door at 10:20, it was aching from the waist down.

But I think (hope?) that I kept a sweet attitude in all this.  That is important for a number of reasons.

A sweet attitude honors the guests.  They should be made to feel appreciated, no matter how busy or stressful or chaotic things are for me/us.  Who knows what they are going through?  Perhaps they’ve recently lost a loved one or a job, maybe they are struggling with depression, or they may have just had a really stressful day themselves.  A caring and calm attitude on my part may help turn their evenings around.

A sweet attitude may be helpful to my fellow food service folks.  Getting out of sorts with guests, with my coworkers, or myself is dishonoring to those I work with.  Just as with our guests, I don’t know what they are struggling with, either.  I know my own problems and struggles.  I should suspect that my coworkers have their own problems and struggles, which may be far worse than my own little issues.

A sweet attitude honors myself.  I feel worse when I become stressed and crabby.  Why should I do something that makes me feel even worse?

Finally, keeping a sweet attitude honors God.  If God lovingly accepts me as I am, with all my past horrendous sins and crimes against humanity, if God lovingly accepts me now, with all my only-too-real failings, then why shouldn’t my attitude be sweet?

Oh, don’t get me wrong: It isn’t easy.  It isn’t for me, and it isn’t for you.  Sweet fruit is not native to my personal climate.  It probably takes a lot of cultivation and nurturing in your soul-garden as well.  The only thing I can do is to continually pray that God will nurture a sweet spirit within me, and expect God to come through.  But the desire to have a sweet spirit is at least a beginning.

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