shopping...coffee...words...and how they all fit together

I did something new this year! I went Black Friday shopping! Don't get me wrong, I've spent many a Friday after Thanksgiving out shopping like the crazy shopper I am but I had never been there when the stores opened. This story begins on our second round of shopping...

Armed with Starbucks (Venti Peppermint Mocha Hot) and our sale fliers we head out. When pulling into the parking lot we notice that the lines have stretched halfway across the parking lot already! It was about that time when my shopping friend and I realized that we had left our heavy winter coats at home! So we sat in the car and stayed warm while waiting knowing that the lines were getting deeper and deeper. Just before 5am my friend breathed a prayer that the particular item she was after would be ours and at exactly 5am I jumped out and headed towards the police guarded doors. Using my well honed skills of getting through large crowds I beat a huge portion of the shoppers in the door. Once inside I make my way, along with a large number of other electronics minded shoppers to the back of the store. I quickly locate the item we were after but notice that there are easily between 25-35 people in the same isle and there appear to be 4 of our desired items key secured to the display rack. I can only give the credit to God for making me number 3 wanting that item!

Now that our door-buster items have been obtained we work our way through the store. We have been through toys, shoes, house wares and are in the juniors department when our story takes a turn:

Three teen girls join us in the juniors department and are oo'ing and ah'ing over clothes they hope their parent's will get them for Christmas. I smile as I think about the young lady my friend is shopping for and hope she has the same feelings towards what her mom is picking out for her. It is then that I hear one of the girls talking and realize that she's using cuss words to describe the clothes. My heart breaks for now instead of a beautiful young woman before me I can only see ugliness.

The Bible says in 1 Samuel 16:7b "...People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." and then in Luke 6:45 it says: "The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks." James 3 talks about how controlling the tongue is. Loosely quoted it says "The one who is able to control their tongue is perfect!" I know that it is impossible to be perfect but we are certainly to make that our aim.

In a previous post I talked about the "garbage in, garbage out" concept and this situation brings this back to mind. I close with this last verse from Psalms. I encourage us all (me included) to meditate on the Word so that our words are pleasing to Him.

May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart  
be pleasing in your sight,  
LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.
Psalm 19:14