My senior year of college, the long time president of the school retired, and it was the first year of the new administration. After chapel one day, the guest chapel speaker joined our table for lunch. We exchanged greetings, and then to my amazement he started bad-mouthing our former president. He didn’t just say one or two things but went on and on about how horrible the former president had been and how much better off we were with the new administration. I found this completely inappropriate, especially for a guest chapel speaker, but I listened in silence. Finally coming to the end of his rant he began asking the students around the table how they wound up at this particular school. Finally he came to me, “So what brought you here?” I simply told the truth. “Well, the former president is a long time friend of my family. . . .”
Ouch! I bet he’ll never do that again! Talk about putting his foot in his mouth…
Lovely family!
How terrible of him. It’s never wise to vent ill feelings about other people — especially in front of strangers! I’m glad you spoke up.
Love your blog. I’ll have to continue to poke around.
Talk about open mouth, insert foot. I hope he realized how unwelcome his comments were.
Visiting from BlogFrog.
I hope he felt bad!
That made me laugh. It’s a good reminder.
Wow. Yeah, I bet he felt like an idiot. I can’t believe he did that. Not a good move for someone who’s supposed to be in leadership… I bet he learned his lesson though! 🙂
Good for you! People in leadership shouldn’t be in leadership if they aren’t leading the right way.
I wanted to stop by and let you know that I only found your blog a few days ago but have enjoyed it the last few times I have come back. So I wanted to give you the Versatile Award and I put the link to your blog in my post. Stop by my blog and take a look.
God Bless……
Open mouth, insert foot indeed
We were visiting each other at the same time I think. I love your writing. Some of your stories are so funny. So nice to meet you.
Haha, wow. I bet he regretted that rant!
I dropped by for a visit, and really enjoyed your blog. I especially like the picture of your beautiful family! Come visit me!
Patti Hanan
http://pphanan.blogspot.com
Hmmm…and I hope he learned something from that. Too bad you couldn’t capture a picture of his face, I bet it was interesting to say the least.
Oh boy! Ha! I can just see the look on that guys face!! He must have gone beet red!! hahaha
He ought to adopt my mantra! Open mouth, insert foot and Chew vigorously to the knee cap! I have a tendency to stick my foot in my mouth. I don’t intentionally bad-mouth people, but I have been known to stick my foot in my mouth on a regular basis. A person would tink we would learn to just keep our mouths shut, but NOOOOOO. By the way, I can’t believe all those kids are yours! You look sooooo young!
Nice to meet you!
God Bless!
PJ
Good for you! Esther, this account reminded me of all the time you spent teaching at Parkview Christian School. You always raise the bar wherever you are. It was such a pleasure working with you.
PJ, I know what you mean. I have a real knack for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. That’s exactly what the man said, “Open mouth insert foot” and he laughed at himself–always a good sign!
that must have been really embarrassing for him. he won’t dare to do that again…
That’s so funny! I guess it’s a nice reminder for the rest of us though!
Oh No!!! Well I bet that taught him:)
Following you back from Mom Loop!! So wonderful to meet you!
Shan:)
Esther, I know what you mean. i always seem to say things the wrong way and then people misunderstand and take it the wrong way.
I have always had a policy to be very careful with what you say to a group of people, Even people you know you find out you don’t know everything about them and who they know! I really try not to talk about other people. I know what it’s like to have people gossip about me. That was exactly what it was.
Good for you for speaking up! I betcha he thinks twice before he talks about anyone again!
In Christ’s Love
Sis in Christ
Tina
He is entitled to his opinion but when its about someone he doesnt know enough about it isnt acceptable. And the fact that he was around strangers only makes it worse. He probably didnt say why he was a terrible president he was just venting. how embarrasing!