When This Little Coffee Shop was Robbed, They Responded with Forgiveness…

This little coffee shop in Louisiana was broken into recently. Hundreds of dollars were taken. They didn't get mad and rant - they actually went on Facebook, and forgave the bad guys!

It's such an unsual turn of events that the Facebook post from 11/30/15 went viral with people across the globe responding. I don't blame them. This made me pause and think about how I react to things...

Dear Person Who Broke In This Weekend: We hope that you really needed what you stole from us. We hope that your child got extra special food to eat, that your water bill was paid and service restored, even that your dog got a special treat. We hope that you donated to one of our favorite local causes. The money that we earn through our honest living goes to these things -- our employees, our family, our loved ones, and the causes and community programs we support. Your actions make it difficult for us to do these things so at least we want to know that you will put our money to the same purpose we would have. We will rally with forgiveness and not respond with anger. Our fans and friends will rally with us and come to our aid by showing their continuing support of the honest, high quality work that we do and continue to help us provide services to this community that we love so much.

The owner, Elizabeth Van Sant, also  wrote something I'm going to try hard to live by:

"You can let them defeat you or get on with it. My reaction is always to get on with it. It was not to lecture anyone, but we have a choice when we react to things. I was choosing ... to go on. I refused to be mad."

Wow. Okay, I feel like a terrible person. But it's a lesson I know well. It's not what happens to you - it's how you react that counts. Plus, now I want a cup of coffee.