Contemplating Chaqueta

One of my least favorite attributes is my mouth.  No, not it specifically, but my lack of control over my tongue.  The Lord has been working on me for a very, very long time over this matter and while I have had some success, I still have an epic failure now and again.  Unfortunately, the ease of whipping out a status on Facebook magnifies this problem for me.  Couple those things with the fact that I have been dealing with one testing after another this week and I am tired...it's just a recipe for disaster where my tongue is concerned.  I have learned that I am far wiser to contemplate a response by weaving it through scripture and after a good night's rest.  Which brings me to Chaqueta...

I made a status remark yesterday about a girl who works at Walmart whose attitude I was bothered by.  I called her out by name and made a comment about her apparent (to me) lack of work ethic and customer service skills.  A while after posting, my cousin Lisa responded with a different viewpoint.  I was thinking about this status as I was getting ready for church this morning and was feeling a bit convicted as I went into worship this morning.  I spent the time in worship asking the Lord to forgive me because my post about this girl's attitude wasn't kind, wasn't necessarily truthful, and it certainly wasn't necessary.  I try to live by those three guides when I speak, but admittedly struggle, and this time failed.  It wasn't kind to call Chaqueta out at all, much less by her name.  While I was irritated by her less than enthusiastic manner, I have no clue what this girl had been dealing with all day, how she had been treated, or what may have transpired in her life recently.  I know all to often when I am dealing with a difficult situation, I am distracted, less than jovial, and sometimes down right wretched to people.  I also now understand that my irritation at people had been building for a few days, and instead of dealing with those who were really irritating me, I took it out via Facebook on someone who couldn't defend herself.  How pathetic of me...and how very sorry I am for doing that.

A little bit ago, I read another post from Amy on my status talking about Chaqueta.  I find myself really ashamed of my behavior.  Instead of being like Jesus, I was all Carla in that instance.  Lesson learned...yet again.