“What Would Jesus Do?”

My friends and I had gone out to dinner to celebrate the New Year.

We were not having a good experience with the waitress, but we chose to stay anyway. It was already getting late, and not many restaurants were open; it would be hard to find a table anywhere else. Besides, we had made a reservation, and it was raining and cold. Our waitress was very rude. She informed us that we needed to order our food because the restaurant would be closing at ten o’clock.

It was already nine o’clock. We quickly placed our order and asked for hot tea. She forgot to give us utensils when she brought the tea, so we asked for spoons. She seemed very annoyed with this request. Twenty minutes later, she returned with one spoon, placed it very hard on the table, and walked away.

My friends and I couldn’t understand why she was so rude.

Finally, the floor manager changed our waitress.

I explained that all we wanted was spoons for our tea. When she reappeared at the end of our meal, the young lady seemed to have a different attitude.

She gave us our check. Since I was paying for the meal, my guests wanted to leave a tip. I objected —she didn’t deserve it after the way she treated us. “No way!” I exclaimed. Moments later, I heard a small voice in my subconscious mind asking, “What would Jesus do?” The words seemed so foreign to me.

My guests insisted that they pick up the tip, and I finally agreed to let them. But there was a problem. I was paying for the check with my credit card, and they would need to put the tip on theirs. As we were discussing this, the waitress reappeared.

When we asked her how to handle this procedure since the tip would be coming from another credit card, she gave us a condemning look.

I then agreed to add the tip to my credit card and not cause any extra work for her. I am reminded of our Lord and Savior as we stand before Him.

We don’t deserve all that His mercy and grace give us, yet He died that we might live. May we forever be so reminded when dealing with others.

Avis Floyd Jackson