First Parade of the Season

Ellie and I hit Brooklyn Park's Tater Daze Parade tonight. I have a soft spot for it since I worked for Brooklyn Park for so many years and had to walk in the parade twice.

I was feeling kind of judgmental about other people's kids during the parade. They mobbed the floats and the people passing out candy, and piled on top of each other to snag stuff, and threw things at each other, and stood out in the street so that we couldn't see. The mom next to me shouted at her kids who ran out in the street at least 20 times, but there was never a consequence, so they always did it again.

Then after the parade, God revealed my judgmentalism to me and I feel very convicted. We were waiting in line at the Biffy. A man was in line too, who was kind of disheveled and had bad teeth and unkempt hair. I smiled perfunctorily at him, but didn't engage him in any conversation and wrote him off in my mind as someone I didn't even want to be seen with. Then a nice woman came up to him and said, "Are you a vet?" The man said yes, and she graciously thanked him for all he'd done. It was so simple; I could have done that. But instead I was thinking judgmental, nasty thoughts. I wonder what else I miss because I'm looking at people through my own faulty eyes instead of God's.