Free Breakfast Gone Wrong

We were at the hotel in Boston getting ready to start heading home. It was one of those hotels with the free breakfast that always seems to cause drama. Well today, since I’m a teenager, I got to sleep in through all of it. So I was lucky enough to miss all the morning’s drama and wake up to a warm waffle in bed. Little did I know the morning’s drama was all over this one waffle that sat in front of me. As I ate, mother filled me in.

To make the waffle you pour this cup of waffle batter into the maker, you close it, flip it and when the timer beeps you flip it back over and take it out. Simple enough, right? Except there’s one key to the whole process that without this key, things can go terribly wrong. That key is the spray that makes the waffle not stick to the maker. As you know, we’ve been in hotels for the past couple nights, so we’re very accustomed to the waffle making strategies.

So after mom sprayed and put it in everything was going flawlessly. That’s when it gets interesting. She couldn’t get the waffle out of the maker. Little did she know, to make matters worse, she was being very closely watched. That’s when she heard a voice.

“You forgot to spray it, didn’t you?” It was one of those snobby accents, one of those accents that just reek of cockiness. She turns around to see about a middle aged man looking straight down at his newspaper through glasses that were literally on the tip of his nose.

Mom wasn’t gonna take it. “Excuse me, I’ve been in these hotels for the past three nights, I know what I’m doing, I sprayed it.”

Continuing on with his reading, without even blessing mom with a look up, “Apparently not.” Mom was speechless, she managed to get it out, came to the room and woke me up to my waffle.
Not an hour later we were outside packing the car when it walked out. “That’s him,” she said. I turned and looked. That’s when I saw him walk to his huge glimmering white Cadillac.

I turned back to mom, “No wonder, he drives a Cadillac.”

Wow. It wasn’t until later I realized how bad of a stereotype I just made. Especially as a resident of one of the wealthiest cities in the world, I have no room to talk. As Christians, we can’t afford to make assumptions or stereotypes. I’ll never forget, my eighth grade computer teacher always said to never assume because you’ll make an ass out of you and me. Hence, if you’re blonde, break down the word assume. And there I go again...

So, my point. As Christians, if we are too occupied judging and making assumptions about someone, we can’t love them. That’s a problem, just a reminder. When Jesus was asked what is the greatest commandment of all, he replied, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it; Love your neighbor as yourself."(Matthew 37-39)

I know it’s hard, and a lot of times it’s all good and fun, but we’ve got to stop. Stop judging, start loving.

Make the choice.

By the way, I really don't have anything against those who drive Cadillacs and some of my smartest friends are blonde girls....