Yesterday my daughter and I went through the drive-thru at a local fast food restaurant. We ordered fish sandwiches and, as always, I asked for extra tartar sauce. After we pulled out onto the road, I opened my box to find a ridiculous amount of tartar sauce. I took a couple of pictures, probably stated it was ridiculous, wiped some off into the box and started eating.
Later I posted the pictures on Facebook with the caption, “I guess extra tartar sauce means be a jerk”.
People commented and gave mad, sad and wow-face reactions. I’ve been told I should contact the manager about it by several people. To be honest, I just don’t want to mess with it.
Maybe that is part of the problem with the world. Maybe if we quit ignoring things we know are wrong, the world wouldn’t be in the shape it’s in today, but I guess there is another plan- you’re reading it.
After a while of receiving notifications on this particular post, I thought why did I post that? I often think it’s annoying to see people post the bad attitude stuff and then there I go doing it.
Why add to the madness of making other people irritated and aggravated? That’s just adding that much more “tartar sauce” to the world when we already have enough to make us angry and irritated.
A post I’d shared earlier that said, “God uses broken people like me and you to rescue broken people like me and you” didn’t get near as much attention. That post- that’s deep stuff. Way deeper than that pile of tartar sauce.
Well of course you know I’m going to relate this to Scripture so I thought this fit pretty good here.
19 So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; 20 for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. James 1:19-20 NKJV
Maybe the person in charge of the tartar sauce isn’t a brother (or sister) in the Lord, that’s irrelevant, but what if I would’ve gone inside calmly and said, “Dude, how do you even feel right about sending this out?” Maybe I should have, but again, I didn’t.
The thing is, we are probably two different people. That person is probably some kid with no self-control (tartar control, whatever you want to call it) and I’m a grown woman who is, over time, learning self-control. Apparently I haven’t mastered it yet since I made a post about it but I’m not going to get under the bus about that either. Why? Because I see growth. It is only because of the Lord that I didn’t storm in there like a raging lunatic, cause a scene and cuss the cook, the manager or anyone else that could’ve been in there. Thank God I’m not that person anymore!
Last week when we were out of town, I went out the entrance of a fast food place and a man rolled his window down and cussed at me. I hollered back, “Oh good grief stupid. It’s not like you couldn’t get through.”
That’s not OK. Right after that I told my husband and dad (who were with me) I shouldn’t have joined his anger game. I needed to exercise self-control.
I don’t want to be hot-headed anymore. It’s unacceptable. Big deal a lot of people don’t want to give grace anymore. That’s not my problem, that’s theirs. Sometimes I forget to give grace. Now that’s my problem, not theirs. I know I sure need it from the Lord, therefore I know I also need to give it.
If I caused you to get distracted from what’s really important, for that I apologize. In my mistakes there are many lessons and I have to make sure pride doesn’t get in the way of me fixing it. A chance to redeem myself from my actions? It’s called grace.
So…next time something comes up, I need to pause and remember: hold the tartar sauce.
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Maid in His Image 
Over the years I have learned always to give the other person the benefit of the doubt. (Such as, maybe the kid was mentally challenged, this was his first job, and that was his idea of “extra.”) More than once I have come across new information that made me very glad I didn’t chew the person out. Like the time a guy in a bar and grill was sitting there just staring at me. Every time I looked his way, he was sitting there, just staring. I was about to get in his face and say “WHAT!?” when his companion said something to him, took his arm, and led him out. I’m really glad I didn’t yell at a blind man.
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Oh man. You just never know.
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