If you know me you know that I believe in tipping well when I eat out at a restaurant. By well, I mean never less than 18% - most of the time even more. The biggest tip I ever gave was 40%!! That's right - 40%!! On that incident, our waiter was my son who worked down at Isaacs during his senior year of High School.
During my recent trip to Liberty Unviersity to drop off my daughter I had two tipping experiences. These showed two opposite extremes.
On one hand, Laura and I are at O'Charley's in Lynchburg by the campus. The food was wonderful and the service was terrific. Our waitress was a delightful young gal who is working her way through college at Liberty as a Women's Ministry major. We had a wonderful time hearing her story and chatting with her as she waited on us. I told my wife, "I wish I were rich so I could leave this gal a $100.00 tip!" If I could have, I would have. But with 2 kids of my own now in college a $100.00 tip was not feasible. However, even though I could not leave her a $100.00 tip, I could leave her a 25% tip - and I did.
On the way home from Lynchburg, Laura and I stopped at a Bob Evans along the way for dinner. Typically Bob Evans has good food and decent service. This night was different. I have never had such bad service. The couple sitting in the booth across from us was as appalled as I was at how forgotten Laura and I had become to our waitress (This lady said it was because I was wearing my Ohio State football shirt - I think she was just jealous because many are predicting my Buckeyes to make the National Championship game this season against the Crimson Tide of Alabama). To say the service was horrible was an understatement. It was the first time in my life that I did not leave a tip at all.
I wonder what would happen if the offering at church was done in tipping fashion - we wait until the end of the service and people give based on how well the preacher did! Obviously, that is ridiculous. The offering isn't a tip - it is God's people obeying God and giving back to Him out of a heart of love and devotion, realizing that everything we have came from Him and belongs to Him to begin with.
We had a similar situation out to eat. Our service was terrible and our waitress was rude. After putting the tip on the table, my daughter picked it up and said "She doesn't deserve that." I asked her to put it back on the table and reminded her that if God could give His son for me, I could leave His money to a women who needed grace. After breakfast we stopped at the Christian bookstore where my daughter wanted me to purchase her a cd. It was Mercy Me - Mr. Lovewell. She just laughed and said God always has a funny way of showing me GRACE. It's to bad you didn't know Mr. Lovewell before you went to Bob Evans. He would of left a tip because he realizes that God gives us what we don't deserve. Grace.
ReplyDeleteReally needed to comment on this.
ReplyDeleteI usually leave 20%. A little more if excellent service.
My family went to TGI Fridays after my Dad's funeral-The waitress ignored us took forever for the food. She never acknowledged us, even my husband told her "We didn't get None"
She made no excuses-the people at the other table came in after us and were served before us. I did leave a tip of about 5%. It alwasy reminded me of that show on "Third Rock From The Sun" he was at a resturant, had a pile of ones on the table told the waitress that is her tip, if she did something unsatisfactory a dollar would be taken.
Agree glad GOD doesn't do that-we all would fall short.