Passing Judgement

"Do not judge or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." Matt. 7:1,2



This is not P, but it might as well have been

This is a verse that is hard for me to live by. For some reason I am a very judgemental person and it drives me crazy. But today I got a taste of my own medicine. I was exhausted when I woke up this morning and could tell P was still tired from yesterday as well. So I texted my friend and told her we were going to pass on going to the water park today so we could just lay low. In hindsight, I wish we would've laid low until after naptime but I'm tired of not getting anything done around the house so I thought we could run errands this morning, take long naps then I could get house stuff done this afternoon. Wrong!
P and I set out on errands and the first two, albeit short ones, went ok. Then we went to Kohls so I could get maternity shorts before my Kohls Cash expired. It started off bad and ended way worse! In the short time we were there, P threw 2 small toys (which I refused to pick up and some other kid or store employee were lucky enough to find) and then proceeded to throw his shoe at a mom in the checkout line that was trying to calm her baby down. Needless to say I was mortified! But, the icing on the cake was when the cashier looked at him, saw that I was purchasing maternity shorts and said, "Oh my, and you want another one?" in a dismayed voice. I could've crawled under a clothing rack and cried until closing time. When we left the store, P was sufficiently punished and I decided my errands weren't that important after all. So we headed home, ate lunch and P has now been sleeping for over 3 hours.
Being in that situation made me realize that I don't know what's going on in other people's lives when I see them...especially with unruly kids. There were many times as a single person that I'd judge a parent based on the here and now. A few of my friends with kids even warned me against it, saying that I may do the same thing given the circumstances. I flat out refused at the time but now chuckle when I catch myself doing the very thing I said I wouldn't do. I will no longer judge a parent based on their child's actions at a grocery store, even if I don't agree with how they handle the situation, because I am not in their shoes at that particular moment. As horrible as the shopping trip was, it was a good reality check, one I hope I don't have to encounter much more.