One time, my man let this other man know that being rude to me was not an option. What's funny to me about this story, is that it happened in the chapel of our church.
Rewind to a few months back.
Our sacrament meeting went nearly 30 minutes over. UGH! It is normal after a church meeting to talk with other members of the congregation for a few minutes afterwards or on your way out of the chapel, right? Right. Well, even though our meeting went over, we still had our small convos. Most of the pews had emptied and Mr. G went to the back to have talk to some dudes and I was towards to front chatting with my friend Connie about her poor little dog, Lucy, who had just passed away. A few minutes into our convo a family from the next ward to meet in the chapel walked in.
They were there about 20 minutes early. Good for them!
Like I said, most of the pews were empty. In fact, I think all of the pews were empty. This family chose to sit in the pew Connie and I standing by in the aisle. The father said, "Excuse me" for us to let him in and we obliged. We even stepped a foot or two back to give proper space, but we carried on our sad convo about Lucy and how Connie's little girls were devistated about her death.
About 2 minutes after the early birds sat down, the father once again turned to us. This time he said sternly, "I bring my family early to church so we can sit in the chapel and to be reverent and feel the spirit. It's extremely difficult to focus on that goal when you are irreverently talking behind us. Your meeting has been over for quite some time and you should be in Sunday School. The chapel is not an appropriate for conversations."
I think Connie and I probably looked like a pair of deer caught in headlights. We were stunned that we had been chastised by this complete stranger. Being the introverted lady that I am, I normally don't speak up for myself, but I couldn't believe he talked to us so rudely and self-righteously.
My response, "Our sacrament meeting actually just got out a few minutes ago, so, yes, I'm talking with my friend for a minute. I don't believe we were being irreverent, sir."
Rudey McRuderude, "I'm sorry, but it is and it's distracting."
Me, "I'm sure you're sorry, but there is a nicer way of asking us to take our conversation somewhere else."
Cue our exit.
Of course, I went right to the back to tell my man about the interaction that just happened. Connie and I relayed the scene and Mr. G said, "Hmm mmm. Not OK."
He marched his handsome self down to the lone family, tapped the man on the shoulder, and said nicely something like, "You can't be rude to my wife. Especially since we're newlyweds, I gotta do my husband duty and defend her. So, it's not cool to be rude to her."
I think the man had a realization that he was a little outta control for the situation and apologized to Mr. G. Afterwards, we took our rude/irreverent/unrighteous group out the hallway. A few minutes later, the man sheepishly came over to me and apologized. I accepted.
Turns out, he used to be the bishop of his ward and his big thing was not talking in the chapel and immediately going to classes afterwards as quickly and quietly as possible. To each their own I suppose.....
The whole thing wasn't really that big of a deal (it's not like he was swearing like crazy or beating on me), but it did teach me that my man would defend my honor no matter what. Win!