Colossians
3:17 - And whatever you do, in word
or in deed, do everything in the name of
the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
I confess I was eavesdropping on a
conversation that a group of teenagers were having. No, I am not a stalker. But
I realized a long time ago that I could learn a lot about what young people are
thinking if I stand a few feet away and just listen.
This particular conversation was between
some girls. They did not appear to be getting along very well. The conversation
became tense. One of the girls said “I’m not trying to be rude but . . .” and
then went on to say some things that were extremely rude. Her tone of voice,
her body language, and the words she used, were all very rude. She knew she was
being rude. Saying, “I’m not trying to be rude...” was merely a ploy for her to
be able to say whatever mean thing she wanted while pretending to be nice.
Though this particular incident involved
teens, I have heard similar things among adults. Far too often starting a
sentence with “I’m not trying to be rude but . . .” is just a thinly disguised
way of being rude. Such rudeness, thinly disguised as politeness, fools no one
and does not accomplish anything positive.
The world may treat one another that
way, but Christians should aspire to higher standards. Christians should aspire
to treat each other with dignity and respect as brothers and sisters in the
family of God. If we do not mean to be rude, then we should not be rude. If we
realize we are being rude, we should stop mid-sentence and apologize. We cannot
continue to be rude thinking that we are fooling others into believing that we
are polite. No one is fooled.
As Christians, everything we say and do
should honor Christ. Rudeness does not honor to the name of our Savior Jesus
Christ, especially rudeness poorly disguised as niceness.
Lord,
help us to treat people the way You would treat them. Amen.
This post is an excerpt from the book, The Heavenly Mundane: DailyDevotions from Ordinary Experiences. Filled with stories of how God spoke
in big ways through small events, the book will encourage people to look for
God in the mundane things of life. Great for both personal use and to give as a
gift to friend, either the print version or the e-book version may be purchased
at this link:
It's funny you should blog about this. Sadly, the final message a teenager I care deeply about and practically raised included the phrase "I don't mean to be rude but..." in it. Then she unfriended me after I responded to her message with an "I love you." My consolation since then has been that should I die, my final words to her will have been kind ones. People should live like they are dying.
ReplyDeleteThose were the right "final words" and probably will be what will eventually salvage the situation. Give it some time.
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