Potato Chips and...

I know many of  the youth and adult are part of Insta Gram.  Well, I recently began to follow a group called, #365BofM.  They give you certain verses in the BofM to read every day and then they ask a daily 
question pertaining to the reading.  People then comment and share their feelings about what they are learning from the BofM and how it is changing their lives. 

One day as we were discussing developing Christlike characteristics, there was a comment that touched me so deeply that I wanted to share it with you.  It made me question myself and made me wonder if I would have the courage to do what this woman did.  This is from a sister in the insta-gram group who wrote the following comment.

"I feel as I study about Jesus Christ, that he is changing me.  I am seeing ALL things more clearly. I am feeling ALL things with more feeling and compassion.  To better explain, please indulge me as I share a portion of my day yesterday. Yesterday was supposed to be a fun filled day.  It was my husband’s birthday and he took the whole day off so that we could spend the day together.  We had it all planned out.  We got up early, read our scriptures and my husband helped me with my laborious daily morning routine to get my handicapped daughter ready for the day.  We dropped her off at school and headed to the Temple.  We arrived at the temple to find an empty parking lot and a sign explaining that it would be closed for a few days.  The disappointment was quickly replaced with awe as we walked around the beautiful gardens and then headed to have brunch.  

After brunch, we decided to go see the movie “Heaven is For Real”.  The movie was wonderful and as parents, who have suffered the loss of children, we were both very touched by the message of the movie and we were more than a bit misty eyed throughout.

Here is where the day takes a real twist….During the last half hour of the movie, a woman entered our theater.  At 11:00 a.m. our theater was almost entirely empty except for my husband and I and one other man, a few rows away from us.  With all the seat choices in the theater open, I was surprised that this latecomer chooses to sit two seats away from my husband on our same row.  

We were deeply wrapped up in the final climatic moments of the movie, when the woman began to open up a bag of potato chips.  Now whether this was the noisiest bag of chips ever manufactured or the fact that it was the quietest theater remains to be determined.  Suffice it to say that this woman was obnoxiously noisy in the opening of her potato chips (which by the way, they do NOT sell in the theater). Then the loud crunching began.  

All three of us turned and looked in her direction, in hopes that our visible disapproval would remind her to be quieter.  No such luck, as an act of defiance she purposely began rattling her bag and munching her chips with obvious open mouthed, noise producing, crunching.  My husband couldn’t take it any longer and as he was the closest to her, he felt it was his duty to reprimand her a bit.  He was not mean but he was obviously ticked off and his words came off curt and blunt.  She did not take it well and deliberately pulled out a chip and leaned over, looking right at him and crunched it in his face.  I reached out and grabbed his leg, holding him back….”Let it go!” I whispered.  

We went back to watching the moving, trying to ignore the continued, magnified crunching and rattling.  I could almost feel the angry steam seeping through my husband’s body, but my thoughts surprised even me.  I was not angry.  My efforts of the morning and this tender movie had filled my heart with a different spirit.  I could see the woman differently. It was as if I was seeing her through the eyes of the Savior.  I began to wonder about her life.  Why was she here in the middle of the day all by herself?  Why was she purposefully drawing this negative attention to herself?  Why was she so unhappy and choosing to cause animosity?  Maybe this was not about her but was yet another test for us today?

The anger now between my husband and this noisy newcomer was tangible.  In days gone by I would have just ignored it.  We would have just finished out the movie and discussed it on the way home, but not today.  Not with all that I have learned about how Christ would have responded.  

I got up out of my seat, stepped over my surprised, seething husband and sat down next to the lady and with genuine concern, put my arm around her shoulders and apologized that we had not acted more Christ like to her.  I explained that this tender movie had brought out some raw emotions in my husband and I, as watching it reminded us of the loss of our son and could she please forgive us for not making her feel more welcome in joining us for the movie. I was close enough to her face to see that initially she truly looked shell shocked, but her facial expression softened and she nodded her acceptance of my apology. I smiled at her and returned to my seat.  She made not a crunch for the rest of the movie.  We stayed until the credits ended and our lady friend also did not move.  As we stood to cross in front of her, she reached out and squeezed my hand.  I squeezed it back.  I knew from past experience that if I walked away without doing anything this day to make things right, a difference for good, I would regret it always.  Today I did not walk away with regret.  I left with a prayer of gratitude in my heart for the ever growing knowledge I am obtaining on how to love as He loves and for the courage to Stand FOR Him, IN HIS name at All times (11:00 a.m. on a Friday morning) and in All things (an uncomfortable situation between a noisy movie patron and my justifiably angry husband) and in All places (the Magestic Movie Theater)."

This story deeply touched me and every time I re-read it, it makes me cry.  It was such a small thing that this dear sister did to diffuse the situation, yet it changed the whole outcome and it makes me want to try to be a better person.

I can't help but think of the poem that Pres. Monson quoted this last General Conference.

I have wept in the night
For the shortness of sight
That to somebody’s need made me blind;
But I never have yet
Felt a tinge of regret
For being a little too kind.