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 just listen, especially when they do not realize I am listening.
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:
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