Yesterday we went through the Starbucks drive-thru to get an evening coffee and when we got to the window, our niece treated us to our order and then waited for them to make our drinks. The first drink that they brought to us was a 26-ounce iced coffee which we were all surprised because we all ordered a tall (small) coffee. Clearly, the baristas were going through a moment of confusion with trying to figure out what drinks went to which order and he said, “did you pay for the order behind you?” We responded that we had not…they said, “Hmm…let me find which order is yours”. A minute or so later he came back and profusely apologized and informed us that they charged us for the car behind us and that they needed to give a refund and charge us for our order. At this moment I thought about how the individual behind us needed a 26-ounce coffee, were they just going to work? Did they have a rough day? Or did they just very much enjoy the taste of a nice evening coffee like us? I don’t know…. all I know is that if the order that my niece paid for was the order behind us…. that’s what was intended to happen. We all insisted to keep the order payment as it was and then paid for our order and went on with our evening.
This experience got me thinking about a post I did the other day. I was introduced to an awesome app where I am able to upload a picture of my dog (fur baby) and speak into the phone and it makes it look like she is talking. It has been incredibly entertaining, to say the least. The post is where my fur baby provided the statistic by the National Institute for Mental Health estimates that 1 in 5 individuals are living with a mental health condition and she encouraged the followers to acknowledge that we never know what someone is going through so do a small gesture of kindness. One of the kind gesture examples was to pay for the coffee behind them. So here I am being confronted with my own words-will I follow and hold myself to the standard that we hope out of others or am I going to be a hypocrite? I am not telling this story to get a pat on the back for doing something nice for a stranger, it’s merely a reminder of how sometimes we are called to lead by example…..right.in.our.face.
