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Fresh Start Devotionals


June 23


Peace

“Peace on Earth, good will toward men?” Not in the shopping malls in America. Christmas, it seems, is bringing out the worst in some people. “No matter how fast you go, it’s not fast enough for some people,” said Dee Stripp, a part-time clerk at the Twelve Oaks Mall in Novi, Michigan. “People don’t seem to have common courtesy anymore.”

The holiday anger has a name “retail rage.” Shoppers feel mistreated, employees feel abused. “People are at the limit of their tolerance,” said Christopher McGoey, a professional security consultant.

The hostility isn’t just between employees and customers. Sometimes customers come to blows with one another. Two women got into a fight over the last $39.95 scooter at the Jackson, Mississippi Wal-Mart store the day after Thanksgiving. Both of the women and the security guard were injured in the incident.

(http://detnews.com/2000/features/0012/04/a01–157302.htm)

How’s your retail rage? You doing OK?

I doubt that I’ll slug someone over a scooter, or that I’ll get in a heated argument with a sales clerk. Hopefully, I’m beyond that sort of base behavior. But I also know that I can get short with people when I’m in a hurry or stressed. I want people to see a Christmas glow on my face, not feel the wrath of a “retail rage.”

Christmas really can be a wonderful time of the year. Yes, it is a time of giving and receiving, but it’s more. It is a time of hope. Of peace. Of good will toward all men.

Luke 1:78–79 “Because of the tender mercy of our God, With which the Sunrise from on high shall visit us, [79] To shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, To guide our feet into the way of peace.”


Jim L. Wilson, Fresh Start Devotionals (Fresno, CA: Willow City Press, 2009).

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