You're Old And This is A Gas Station!!!

With a collection of poison pimples on my chin and one smack in the middle of my forehead, today wasn’t a day to feel beautiful. Nevertheless a contractor in his mid-thirties kept staring at me while he pumped gas into big white truck. Eventually he came over to me and said:

“Hello, my name is Joe Smoe. I’m a contractor with such and such, and I noticed you over here, and I wanted to tell you that you’re really beautiful.”

“Well thank you, but you know I had no say in the matter.”

“I don’t see very many people around as beautiful as you.”

“Thank you, but you know real beauty is on the inside.”

“Ya, but how can you know unless you get to know a person. Maybe I can take you to lunch sometime.”

“Um, I’m married.”

“Oh.”

“Yep. I’ve been happily married for awhile now.”

“That’s great.”

“Do you know what the secret to a great marriage is?”

“Communication. You got to communicate.”

“Are you married?”

“Divorced.”

“Why didn’t it work out?”

“We didn’t have good communication. I married this younger girl, and after we were married for awhile, she starts looking around, and now we’re divorced.”

“Well, I wish you the best of luck on learning to communicate.”

“What do you think the key to marriage is?”

I looked him straight in the eye and said, “My relationship with Jesus Christ.”

“Ya. Christ has helped me on a number of occasions too.”

“There’s no other way I could make it each day without him.”

“Alright, well you take care.”

“Later.”

He drifted back over to his truck while I put the cap on my gas tank, forgot to take my receipt or push the button that says: “No I don’t want a car wash”. As I put on my seat belt, the lady across the center column caught my eye. I shook my head, and she smiled.

“That guy was trying to pick up on you.”

“Seriously,” I replied. I hoped she’d heard what was said because those weren’t my words.

This isn’t the first time this has happened, but this is the first time I was able to say exactly what I wanted. Usually I only manage to turn red, stumble over my words, and desperately search for an exit. I was still red, but this time God put the pieces together. If the way I look brings inquiries, I want to redirect them right back to Christ. He’s the one who made me who I am in the first place.