{"id":373,"date":"2015-10-24T02:19:57","date_gmt":"2015-10-24T02:19:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/?p=373"},"modified":"2015-10-24T02:19:57","modified_gmt":"2015-10-24T02:19:57","slug":"the-frazzled-moms-smile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/?p=373","title":{"rendered":"The Frazzled Mom’s Smile"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today my daughter and I went to Toys R Us. \u00a0To be honest, I haven’t been to that store for a very long time. \u00a0Partly because my kids are older and the things they want aren’t found there, and\u00a0because I do a lot of my shopping on line. \u00a0But my daughter was looking for a fun gift for a friend’s birthday and it was the place we knew we could find it. \u00a0We quickly found the toy she was looking for and headed to the check out.<\/p>\n

As soon as we got there, I could feel the frustration rising. \u00a0We had one toy. \u00a0The lady in front of us had several items, including audio books, stuffed animals, kitchen toy sets, and a few large plastic toys. \u00a0When I heard her ask the cashier to check the prices of the books, I rolled my eyes thinking of the\u00a07 girls on their way to my house for a party. \u00a0I may have even sighed. \u00a0The fact that she had two small children with her assured me that this would not be a quick transaction.<\/p>\n

She turned to us and mouthed ‘sorry’. \u00a0I curtly smiled as if I was being gracious.\u00a0\u00a0I heard my daughter\u00a0bubbly respond with, ‘oh that’s okay!’ as she\u00a0smiled\u00a0at\u00a0the children.\u00a0\u00a0I’d like to say that my heart softened and was filled with patience. \u00a0It was not. \u00a0I kept thinking about the time and how it was running out.<\/p>\n

Then I heard the mom asking the cashier about their layaway program and return policy.\u00a0\u00a0You’ve got to be kidding me!, I screamed in my head. \u00a0I started looking around to see if there were any other employees around to check us out.\u00a0\u00a0There were none.\u00a0 I again looked at our one toy and thought how this should not have to take this long.<\/p>\n

\"8423504107_c1e231f609_z\"<\/a>About that time, her young son was becoming agitated. \u00a0He started to cry and tried to crawl out of the cart. \u00a0My daughter and I, and the now several people behind us, watched the boy. \u00a0When it seemed that he was getting into a dangerous position, I had my daughter go to him so he didn’t tumble out onto the floor. \u00a0The young mom turned around again, picked up her son, and smiled that smile every frazzled mom has used.<\/p>\n

That’s when I felt it.\u00a0 The sharp pain deep in my chest.\u00a0\u00a0I had given that same smile hundreds of times when my kids were younger. \u00a0That smile of, please forgive me, I know I’m taking longer than you’d like, I know my kids are screaming, but I’m doing the best that I can. \u00a0That smile that I so hoped would be met with loving, caring faces full of grace and mercy.<\/p>\n

Now, years later when met with that smile, I was not gracious or merciful.\u00a0 I wasn’t compassionate or understanding.\u00a0 I was impatient and rude.\u00a0 I was so focused on myself, my time, my concerns that I had overlooked the woman standing right in front of me.\u00a0 I had seen her as an obstacle instead of a person.\u00a0 I focused only on my\u00a0desires\u00a0instead of seeing her need.\u00a0 I considered being on time of greater importance than offering grace.<\/p>\n

I wish I could go back\u00a0and act differently.\u00a0 I wish I could offer her help,\u00a0or a smile filled with love\u00a0and mercy.\u00a0\u00a0More so, I wish I could offer her words of encouragement and understanding.\u00a0 Words that would have reminded her that someone sees her,\u00a0she’s not an annoyance, she’s doing a good job,\u00a0and she’s not alone.<\/p>\n

I can’t go back, but I can move forward with a new, softened heart; reminded once again that people, not time or schedules, are most important to God.\u00a0 And since loving them is His priority, it should be mine as well.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today my daughter and I went to Toys R Us. \u00a0To be honest, I haven’t been to that store for a very long time. \u00a0Partly because my kids are older and the things they want aren’t found there, and\u00a0because I … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":380,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/8423504107_c1e231f609_z.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=373"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":383,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373\/revisions\/383"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}