I hung up on a telemarketer last night.
I could tell as soon as I answered the phone that it was a telemarketer. I could hear the sounds of phones ringing and other people talking in the background as soon as I said, “Hello.”
On the other end of the line, a voice said, “Uh, yeah, is Mr….(shuffling of papers in the background)…Bybee there?”
Maybe I just didn’t feel like summoning up the energy to politely listen while he went through his whole spiel. Maybe it ticked me off that he didn’t know my name right off the bat. Maybe it was a combination of both. But as soon as he finished asking for me, I just hung up on him.
And as soon as I did, you know what popped in my mind?
“It is not rude.”
1 Corinthians 13:5.
I’m not sure if I’m doing any better with this whole resolution thing, but I will say this: I’m becoming more cognizant of the times when I get it wrong.
already & not yet 
Tough one brother. I’m on that do not call list, and if it is an actual “telemarketer” I’ll just politely tell them that I am on the Do Not Call List and by law they are not supposed to call me.Most of the time, it is either a survey person or “Friends of the Firefighters” or “Friends of the Sheriff’s Department”. We have a guy that is a state trooper and he says that those calls are bogus, that the money never goes to anything they claim it is is supposed to go to. So you’re right, its hard to stomach those calls, but I suppose we should be a little nicer to them. They are just doing their job.
I know. This blog could take a really confessional turn here if I were to post every time I fall short in this “resolution”. I know those guys are just doing their job and 99% of the time, I’m polite. For some reason the other night, I was just a jerk.
Being on the NO CALL LIST helps, but we are on every possible political fund raising list, and every charitable list too. I’ve starting interrupting, and simply say “we don’t take silicitaion calls anymore” and hang up. My time with my family if valuable and I resent having to stop what I’m doing, search for the phone, only to find its someone I don’t need to talk to. It usually happens when were in the middle of school!