AUTOMATED GRATITUDE
Beware of automated gratitude! I am irritated every time it happens. The checkout clerk rings up my purchases, takes my money, hands me the change, and says, “Thank you for shopping at ____ .” Only she does not mean it. I can tell because of the weary, automated tone of her voice – and because she’s looking toward the next customer as she speaks. I walk away thinking I have been waited on by a machine. Saying thank you to customers is probably company policy. And I suppose at first she said it thoughtfully and with a smile, but as the days and weeks passed, the practice became a habit; and the habit became just a mechanical response. As Christians, our “company policy” is: “In everything give thanks” (I Thess 5:18). We are to be thankful people in conversations with others and in our prayers to God. But, like the woman at the checkout counter, we can become careless and cold in…
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