22 Oct, 2008
Fla. woman arrested over $7 breakfast bill
Maryanne O'Neill, 66, was charged with "defrauding an innkeeper" after she refused to pay a $7.45 bill on Saturday at the Waffle House in Fort Pierce, Fla., TCPalm.com reports.
"O'Neill said she was not going to pay for her food," the police report says, according to the paper. "I asked O'Neill again to pay for her food and she plain refused to."
She was taken to the St. Lucie County Jail. The story doesn't give any indication as to why O'Neill didn't want to pay for her breakfast.
Excerpt from USAToday.com story.
A Mountain out of a Mole Hill
"And whatever you do or say, let it be as a representative of the Lord Jesus..." (Colossians 3:17a, The Living Bible).
Wouldn't it be nice if we could live up to this verse? What if we really asked that question made famous back in the 90's: "What would Jesus do?" Or expand on that thought:
- What would Jesus do?
- What would Jesus say?
- Where would Jesus go?
- Who would Jesus go there with?
- What would Jesus NOT do?
- What would Jesus NOT say?
- Where would Jesus NOT go?
- Who would Jesus NOT go there with?
You get the idea. The eight questions above would screen out a lot of activities, statements, and relationships that get us into a lot of trouble in life. Avoiding bad choices would save us many negative consequences, protect our reputation and reflect positively on Jesus, who we say we follow!
The problem is that when we don't ask what Jesus would do, we fall into the habit of only caring about what we want to do. And usually selfish choices are not the best choices. The more self-centered we become, the more ridiculous we look. We find ourselves:
- Worrying about what others think of us instead of taking time to even notice them.
- Arguing for our "rights" even if it hurts someone else's.
- Telling everyone the details of our story, but not being at all interested in their story.
- Getting all bent out of shape over the littlest of things ("making a mountain out of a mole hill").
- Stubbornly refusing to ever admit we might be wrong - even if we go to jail over $7.45!!!
I do not know the rest of the Waffle House story. Maybe the syrup was cold. Maybe the eggs were runny. Maybe the service was poor. Maybe Ms. O'Neill just had a really bad morning. But Jesus would have paid for the breakfast.
As your friends hang out with you they watch what you say, where you go, who you go there with and what you do when you get there. More importantly they watch how you interact with the cashier at Burger King when they get your order wrong. They see you get a paper back with a grade you think is unfair. They see you talk with your parents, see you work hard in practice, and put in an honest hour's work for an hour's pay.
In short they see you do what Jesus would do. Your friends just may be attracted to the Jesus you follow. A million years from now you'll just laugh about cold waffles. You'll really laugh if your friend is in heaven laughing with you!
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