Have you ever been embarrassed when you made a mistake and everyone laughed? What did you do?
Flag Fiasco
Several weeks ago I was at a workshop with over 200 other ladies. One of my jobs was to carry the flags in at the beginning of the meetings and carry them out again at the end. There were four flags and four of us to carry them.
On the first night, everyone (including the organization’s national president who was visiting) stood up and watched us as we went up on stage to get the flags and walk them out of the room. The American flag processed out without a hitch, but the state flag was stuck in its base.
The lady who was supposed to carry it pulled as hard as she could, but it wouldn’t budge. The lady next to her on stage tried to help. Still nothing. She tried again and accidentally knocked over the flag next to her (a big no-no). She couldn’t reach it, so I came over to get it for her. Then, with the 200 ladies and the organization’s national president watching and waiting for us, I put my foot on the base to brace it and pulled on the flagpole with all my might. With a loud POP, out it came. I was just glad it didn’t poke a hole in the ceiling. I handed the flag to the lady who was supposed to carry it and went back to my post.
The three of us carried the flags out of the room with as much composure and dignity as we could manage after that fiasco. We must have still been a bit flustered though, because we went out the wrong way. Honestly, we were just happy to escape those 200 pairs of eyes watching this whole disaster. As those ladies followed us out of the room, most were smiling or still chuckling. As we thought about it and our nerves calmed, we laughed too.
Keeping the Right Perspective
Everyone makes mistakes and life doesn’t always happen the way we would like it to happen. The important thing is to keep the right perspective and look at it the right way.
One of the ladies who witnessed our flag fiasco that night said, “You have to laugh at things like that or you’ll cry.” That is good advice, but the Bible takes it one step further.
“Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.”
Galatian 1:10 (NIV)
God loves you so much that He sent His Son to die for you (see more in this video). Nothing is a surprise to Him.
“…all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.”Psalm 139:16 (NIV)
He knows when we will mess up publicly… and He loves us anyway! The secret to not being so embarrassed is to worry more about what GOD thinks of us than what OTHERS think of us. Here it says it another way.
“Let us keep looking to Jesus. He is the one who started this journey of faith. And he is the one who completes the journey of faith. He paid no attention to the shame of the cross. He suffered there because of the joy he was looking forward to. Then he sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. He made it through these attacks by sinners. So think about him. Then you won’t get tired. You won’t lose hope.”
Hebrews 12:2-3 (NIRV)
What helps you keep the right perspective in embarrassing situations?
This link is part of the Titus 2 Tuesday Linkup Party.
