A moment in life where you stand back and look at it and not only learn from the moment but change it into a life lesson, that might change the way you do or look at things in the future.
This last week I had two "moments" that actually taught me the same lesson. One of them, I thought I'd share with you.
What would you do in the below situation?
Last Saturday I'm walking up to the rhea lana's line. (Children Consignment event in NWA). It's 12:30, the doors open at 1. It's a little chilly, most people are hungry, and from what I estimate there are about 50 people that were already in line.
So as I walk up to get in line, I notice that the line is going out into the parking lot. I thought to myself, that's not going to work. What are these people thinking? After all, Most people that get to go to the consigner sale at 1pm, have been there several times before, and are familiar with the rhea lana's process.There were probably a few hundred people still set to arrive before 1pm and we had the line weaving through a parking lot, with cars, little children, cars coming and going, and within 100 feet of a major highway. It was soon going to turn into mass chaos. I asked the lady in front of me...do you think we should try to move the line? The lady looked at me with big eyes (as if it was a big task). So I said to her, well there are several people coming and I don't think we should have the line going out this way through a major parking lot and into a highway. Shouldn't we try to move it to the sidewalk right there? (There was a sidewalk safe from cars that the line had always lined up on in the past). The lady just kind of shook her head and said ya, that's kind of what I thought too. A lady in front of her turned around and said to me - this is just the way the line was when I was here (as if I was blaming her). Another lady in front of me said she thought everything would be fine. I know this sounds silly, but I truly found myself knowing the right thing to do which was move the line, and it wasn't going to be an easy task and I felt like the other people knew the right thing to do but it was easier just to sit in line and not say anything or do anything to change it. Well a few minutes later a few people arrive in line behind me as I knew several several more people would as it got closer to 1pm. Well now we were literally in the way of traffic. Now I turn to the people behind me and say, don't you think we should move the line over to the sidewalk? They said, yes I do, and looked at me. So I said, well....how are we going to do this? We have to get 50+ people to pick up there stuff and stay in line and walk over to that sidewalk......the people behind me just said, ya it's not going to be easy. Obviously they were not going to do anything either.
Here comes my "moment"
I stood there and took a deep breath. Was I going to stay quiet and go with the easy choice? All I had to do was stay in line and play on my iphone.... or was I going to try and do the right thing. I knew I had to get these people to move, I knew it was the right thing to do, and I knew no one else was going to step up and help me do this. I told the lady next to me I'd be right back. I got everyone's attention in front of me, and slowly got everyone to move over to the sidewalk. I helped one lady move her stroller, and another lady carry her bags. A few minutes later - the line was on the sidewalk, everyone was safe, there was plenty of room for the line to grow, and the traffic jam cleared, and cars could come and go by the store now.
I walked back to my place in line and everyone was smiling. They said good job, I couldn't have done that, I smiled and said, oh yes you could have, I didn't think I could either. The other lady said, that was the right thing to do, and pointed out to me how long the line was now that it was getting closer to 1pm. Another lady actually turned around that had heard the whole conversation and said, thank you for doing that. My mom than joined us in line and I got to tell her the story again with the ladies next to me laughing and agreeing with the story.
There was my moment, it could teach so many lessons, but let me share with you how it changed me.
Have you ever looked at someone and told them.....let me know what you need, don't hesitate to call....but all you had to do is just say those words and never really had to put any actions with them? I mean - how many times do we say, please let me know I can do anything, but than walk away and never have to do anything at all?
This week I was given the opportunity to put actions along with my words. Someone I had said all those things to, actually needed me, and called. I was grateful for the opportunity to help.
This week I also got to show several people in a rhea lana's line how to put actions with their words. God gave me the perfect opportunity to step up and be a good example, and I stepped up to the challenge.
Sometimes in life we just have to do things. Just do them. Its that simple. Stop just thinking about them, stop just saying we'll do them. Stop thinking about how hard it might be, or how easy other options are.
We are coming up on the holidays. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas. A time of year that presents itself with so many opportunities to step up and do nice things for other people or to finally make a change within yourself. I don't know what your "Rhea lana's line moment" is in your life, but I hope that you get to experience one soon, whether it be unexpected, or whether you go out and create one for yourself.
The end :)
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