Estimated reading time: 3 minute(s)

The other night we had finished shopping at Wal*Mart and after unloading all of our groceries into the van, I looked for the place to return my cart. It was pretty far away, but I wanted to make sure I put it back in the right place. There was another one right next to our van, so I put my cart in that one and pushed both to the cart return corral.

As I was doing all that, I was just perplexed as to why it’s almost my first inclination to think about other people, and how my actions (or inactions?) will affect them, and how it seems that I am in the minority. There were carts all over the parking lot, in parking spaces, up on curbs, and just generally in chaos. Yes, I know they pay people to put them back, but isn’t it fairly easy to return it to the collecting place? That way it’s out of the way of where people drive and walk. Seemed so simple to me…

And don’t forget that we had just spent almost two hours at Wal*Mart with our four tiny kids, late in the evening (was nearly 10pm when we were done) and had to still do bedtime (and put all those groceries away) when we got home! We had plenty of “excuses” to not put the cart(s) back.

I was reminded of a parenting class we have taken and led many times over the years. One of the core things they teach is a “rational preoccupation with others around you”. The goal being to teach your kids to think about others, not just themselves. But in order to do that, it starts with you. And, a simple example they give is the shopping cart one. By simply taking less than a minute of your life to return your cart, you are thinking about the people who come behind or after you. You aren’t doing it just because it is “right”, but because you are thinking about the “preciousness of others” (a common phrase from the course) and loving other people like you do yourself. (Or, treating other people the way you want to be treated.)

(Yes, I thought all of this in the 30 seconds that it took me to take the cart back and return to the van.) 🙂

I think what struck me the most is just how easy the task is, and how natural it is for me… and how uncommon it seemed to be that night. Why is it so difficult for us to think about each other? I see it in my kids. I feel like it’s all I say, and yet, they are still quite selfish. I am constantly reminding them to think about how they would want to be treated. For the moment, they get it, but a moment later, they are back to looking out for their own interests rather than those of their closest sibling.

Why is this so hard for us to get?

I don’t have the answer, but I do know for a fact that the world would be a better place if we would somehow get it, and start thinking about the people around us—treating them like we want to be treated.

And take our carts back. 🙂

(NOTE: If you read the previous post, you might think, isn’t this a bit of double-talk? Wasn’t one of the examples of misunderstood Christian-ness taking back a shopping cart?? Yes. But I think if you read both, you’ll see the constant in the equation: love for other people.)