Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: SMILE (08/13/20)
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TITLE: THE TRAINING | Previous Challenge Entry
By Tana Craig
08/18/20 -
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THE TRAINING
My speaker, due to a mix-up in her schedule, was late; I would have to wing it ‘til she arrived. I was new to my position as Director of Training for a therapeutic foster care agency in the high desert sixty miles north of Los Angeles.
“For those of you who haven’t met me, my name is Tanya Corrigan. (Pause) For those of you who have met me, I’m still Tanya Corrigan.”
Laughter. “I can do this,” I thought. I smiled and began to relax.
“My speaker has been detained for a bit. She is a counselor at the high school and a dynamic speaker. In the meantime, I’ll share a childhood memory and open a discussion.”
“When I was a teen, I never seemed to be able to do chores thoroughly enough to please my mother. A memory that stands out for me was one day when I was left to clean the kitchen while she went grocery shopping.
I washed, dried, and put away all the dishes, swept and mopped the floor, and wiped down the stove. I was proud of the bright, clean kitchen.
“I’m home,” Mom called as she entered, setting down a bag of groceries.
I came running with a big smile, “I finished all my chores, Mom.”
Mother looked around the kitchen, then slowly bent over the sink.
“What do you call that? “she asked, pointing at the drain.
I looked at the drain basket, full of gunk. I hadn’t emptied it. Mom’s look knocked the smile off my face.
I asked the group what Mother had communicated when she saw only the one thing I hadn’t done.
Just then, my speaker arrived. I introduced her, and she got right into a story, illustrating the importance of positive messages in communicating with children.
“When I was a teen, I never seemed to be able to do chores quite good enough to please my mother…” I froze, as she proceeded to tell, word for word, the account I had just described, of how she left gunk in the filter basket.
Murmuring began and spread around the room. Then, one of the parents spoke up, “Tana just told us that exact story.”
The speaker didn’t miss a beat. “Well, she has never heard my story; that just illustrates how common it was to find garbage in the sink strainer back before garbage disposals.” She moved right on and finished her talk.
I smiled, but my face felt was red-hot; my smile plastic. I had heard my speaker’s illustration before, and I told her story as if it happened to me.
How fitting it would have been to say, “Wait! This account is a perfect example of borrowed memories, ” and gone on to explain how that happens. But I sat next to the speaker, stupefied, with “lie” written large on my smiling, flushed face.
This incident felt like a humiliating episode of “SMILE, You’re on Candid Camera.
The memory of that night stays, prompting me to send a quick prayer in stressful situations. God knew I hadn’t consciously told a lie. My foremost desire, whether alone with God or in front of a group, is to be genuine. I want my authentic smile to reflect God and His goodness.
Psalm 34:19 in The Message reads: ”Disciples so often get into trouble;
Still, GOD is there every time.”
Now THAT verse makes me smile, ear to ear.
Non-fiction
Word Count: 575
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