my supper made me think . . .

Me and my husband were out for supper at a restaurant the other day and I had a thought. . .

The food we were eating wasn't exceptional, in fact it was pretty disappointing. We had both ordered the same dish and neither of us was overly enjoying our supper. I knew that at some point in time the waitress would come around with the regular polite question "how is everything?" So I asked Brendan what he thought we should say when we were asked how our food was. We both decided that politely sharing that the food hadn't lived up to our expectations would be OK, it was honest, why would we lie? So i was prepared, when she asked I was going to be honest. However, when she came around she quickly rushed by mumbling something about "how was everything", hands full obviously on a mission, we both, with our mouths full  quickly responded "it's good, thank you." ummm . . . wait, that's not how that was supposed to go?!?

It just made me think, how often do people really share what is true. If the waitress had had a bit more time maybe I would have shared the truth with her, or maybe if it had come across that it actually mattered if the food was good it would have made a difference. So often in life I rush by someone and spit out "hey how are you?" often in such a rush that the answer could be "terrible, I'm stricken with disease and my dog just died" and I would still think that "O great!" is an appropriate response. Hey at least i made conversation right? Wrong, I think in this fast paced world I need to slow down, enough that when a kid hears me ask the question "Hey, how are you?" they believe that I am willing to stand there and listen to whatever the answer might be, and then to respond appropriately with both care and interest, if I'm not then I'm not being very relational. And if I honestly don't have an extra moment then maybe a simple "hi" would be more appropriate than a question I don't care to hear the answer to. It's funny how a bad meal can get me thinking sometimes.