please and thank you

It's 9:30 pm. I'm sitting at my kitchen bar with Stheve (my laptop... yes, it's spelled right), a mug of green tea, and a hastily assembled veggie-stir-fry-wrap-thing that I'm calling dinner.

I just got back from meeting with a group of students at Starbucks. About halfway through our time there, I went up to the counter to get an ice water. I think my exact wording was, "Could I have a large ice water please?"

The barista looked at me. "Thanks for saying 'please'," she said earnestly as she began to fill a glass. "It gets you a lot farther in this world than you think."

Her comment really struck me. How often to we sail through life, treating other people as objects, or merely means to an end? How often do we assume (unconsciously) that because we're only interacting with a person for a few moments out of our lives, that interaction can't be significant? A kind word - even just eye contact and a smile - can make a far bigger impact than we tend to think. Every time I talk to another person, I'm talking to someone that is created in the image of God. Every interaction, however slight, is an opportunity to communicate God's love. I wish I remembered that more often.