My Foot-in-Mouth Moment Before Church

Every Sunday, well, at least most Sunday’s, we eat breakfast together as a family at the café at our church.  We've been doing this for a while now and because of this, the volunteers that work in the café have gotten to know us. 

Usually, after we pay and find a table, I get in line with Lydia and get her food.  After that, I get Chantel’s food while she stays at the table with Sadie.  It’s not until I get everyone else’s food and drinks that I get my food.  This really isn't a problem, but sometimes I forget that not everyone knows us or sees what I’m doing.

One morning, it was pretty slow in the café, so I was taking my time getting Lydia’s food and one of the volunteers noticed how many times I was in line; and he knew why.  I had to go through the line twice for Lydia’s food, once for fruit, then again for everything else.  What I didn't realize was after going through the line twice already for Lydia and once for Chantel, the lady in front of me on the fourth round didn't know that I was already in line that many times.

After she was done getting her food, I said out loud, “Finally, I can get MY food!”  This was mostly aimed at the volunteer since he’d already seen me three other times, and it was of course meant to be a light hearted joke.  But the look on the face of the lady ahead of me wasn't so happy.

I knew as I was saying it that it probably wasn't the best idea, but as they say, “You can’t un-ring a bell”.  By the way, who are “they” anyhow?  But I digress.  I immediately started apologizing to her and explaining that it wasn't because of her and that I was joking about having already been in line three times.  She laughed and completely understood. 

I don’t always think before I speak, but it’s something I’m working on.  One lesson I learned, other than thinking before speaking, is to be mindful of who is around you.  People don’t always know the context of a conversation that you’re having or a wise-crack that you make and lots of times innocent jokes and wise-cracks can often be quite offensive when the words reach the ears of the wrong person.

So now I want to know, when was the last time you had an open mouth, insert foot moment and what was the outcome?  Let me know in the comments.