"I'm so glad this happened to y'all. I get to get good stuff for cheap," she said with a smile. I was in too much shock to even reply as I overheard her words to another team member of mine.
This was 2019 when a flood destroyed our business, and we lost so much. We were picking up the soaking wet pieces as quickly as possible and trying to secure an income for ourselves and our dedicated team who showed up to help sell items for pennies on the dollar.
I looked at all of the merchandise. Anything that touched the water, even if not for that long, we sold. We didn't want to risk our integrity by purposefully putting flood ridden items back in our store and calling them "new."
Two years later, and her words still haunt me upon remembrance. It was hard for me to grasp that someone could be happy that something bad happened to someone else. But she was. I was even more overwhelmed that she had the audacity to say it aloud to a weary and exhausted employee.
What I learned from that experience is there are people in our lives who are not cheering for us. They don't want us to win. They may even play a part to our faces...making us think they are our biggest fan. They act like they love us, care for us, want the best for us. But sadly, they don't.
So what in the world is the point of a depressing post like this?
Humans are flawed. They are fickle. Here today and gone tomorrow. Some are out to use you for all they can get. They think you don't know, but I bet you do. I know I do. The Holy Spirit's discernment is an awesome gift that we can use to pray for others and put up boundaries in our lives.
When people say negative things to us, our brain processes it differently than when someone says something positive to us. Our brains have a natural tendency to remember the negative, because negativity presents as threats to our survival.
And if we aren't careful, we will slowly let their comments and actions take control of our hearts and minds. Perhaps we become cynical and distrustful. I get it. Our skin will become so thick we don't feel much of anything. Our protective shells will be emotionally bullet proof as we keep everyone out, and we will begin to see everything through the lens of, "They want to hurt me. People stink."
But.....
The flip side of this story....
I don't know if the old saying, "There are more good people than bad," is true at all. But I do know that we had hundreds of people come to volunteer to help us recover. We had people help financially, provide meals for us, bring supplies, and fervently pray for us.
We get to choose our focus and our thought life. We can focus on the one person who made a jerky comment or we can focus on the hundreds of people who spoke love through their acts of service and words of affirmation.
Don't emotionally abuse yourself by continuing to ruminate on how someone wronged you. Count your blessings, instead. Look for the good. And most of all, look to God and be the good!
