A Good (K)night

Stephen and I made a major purchase over the weekend after weeks of research to find the most necessary features and the best price and warranty options. Yup, we’re nerds like that. Actually, I think it’s totally sexy that my man is so strategic in how he does that research for our purchases and isn’t all impulsive. We’re getting a brand new….dishwasher!
Wahoo! Imagine, if you will, that I’m doing a super-duper excited mom dance right now. That’s not the most amazing part, though.

After doing all of those price comparisons, we chose to visit a store here in Raleigh to look at the dishwasher in person. Stephen wanted me to have a chance to look at and touch the product that would potentially be installed into my domain of the kitchen. (That’s right. MY domain. Bwahaha!)

Anyhow, we went to this store, and it took all of 15 minutes for Stephen to sit down with the sales rep and make the purchase as we already knew what we wanted. Stephen thought it was a decent experience, but I had quite the opposite opinion. Unfortunately for Stephen, I didn’t express my frustration about the experience in a godly manner and at first responded out of my anger by being indignant and rude to everyone in my family. Finally in the van I was able to calm down enough to explain why I was so angry.

You see, the store employee never once shook my hand nor introduced himself, he spoke to Stephen about 95% of the time during the sale process, and when it was all over he was gone before I knew it. At what I assume was the end of the sale process, I had been bent over trying to tie Medium Banana’s shoes again, and he left without so much as a “Thanks for your purchase, let me know if you have any questions, and I hope you have a great day.” Stephen told me that the sales rep had said those things to him, but I had no idea that the sale was complete let alone that the guy had walked away until I stood up and looked around in confusion.

I was embarrassed, I was humiliated, and I was in tears because I was also quite angry about it all. “It’s quite apparent to me, Stephen, that he had no idea how to treat a lady at all, but beyond that he didn’t even treat me like a person, like a human. I felt invisible. It felt like we were just a sale and that we weren’t people. Maybe being in sales has given me a new perspective on how all of this should be done, and the way he acted was completely unacceptable.” Stephen was quiet for a while before telling me that he didn’t realize this and that if ever again this happened to pull him aside right then and share it with him rather than wait and then explode at the family. He was right. But I’m glad that he didn’t leave it there.

We were already on our way home during this conversation, so Stephen took all of us home so I could feed the boys. What came next was WAY better than a brand new dishwasher. Stephen told me that he was going back to the store to return the dishwasher and to talk to the sales rep about how the guy had treated me.

While he was gone I explained to my sons that their daddy was treating me like a princess, and that I am so thankful for how he was defending my honor. I could have cared less if Stephen returned the dishwasher or not. What I wanted more than anything was for him to step up to the plate and let that man know how much a husband can love his wife and keep her safe and treasured especially when someone else behaves in a manner that counters. Stephen later told me that the sales rep apologized for what he’d done and offered a mark-down of our price, but Stephen passed on it. In fact, he drove up the road to a different store and ended up with a price that literally made my eyes pop out and jaw drop because it was so much lower than what we’d originally paid at the former store. Still, that’s not the point, at least in my opinion.

Any ill feelings from my encounter with the sales rep have been far removed from my heart and replaced with greater love, respect, and admiration for my husband, my prince and knight, who defended my honor. He has taught something valuable to that employee (I hope), and he has set an unbelievable example for his own sons. With as much as I have bragged to them about how their Daddy responded in all of this, I’m sure they have internalized at least some of it! All of that is so much more precious to me than a dishwasher. So precious.