It's so ghetto over here.

A few weeks ago my daughter's soccer team had practice near Valley View Middle School.  Apparently the comment was made (among a smaller group of kids) that; "It seems so ghetto over here."  (Many of the players come from the west side of Bloomington.)  Well, when Kristen mentioned that, I got on my holier-than-thou soapbox and complained about the attitude of those players.  As a parent who has sent four kids to the "east side" high school, I am sometimes (overly) sensitive to comment like that.

A few days later, while flipping pancakes on a Saturday morning (my 16 year still sound asleep), I bring the subject up again to my wife.  She said, "That really bugs you, doesn't it?"  "YEAH!" I replied.  (If you haven't figured it out yet, I score pretty high in the "judging" portion of the Myers-Briggs personality indicator.)

It wasn't more than an hour later, I was enjoying a coup of coffee and catching up on some blogs I like to read.  I pulled up TJ Addington's post about his recent trip to Hong Kong, where he mentions how his wife made such an impact on the housekeeper at the hotel, that the housekeeper asked TJ's wife for her email so she could stay in contact.

It hit me.  I was so quick to judge others, but was I making any kind of imp at on people's lives that I am in contact with - be it on a regular basis or a one time event?  I hope so, but I sure haven't had a service worker ask me for contact information because I made them feel special!

In The Message version of the Sermon on the Mount, it challenges us to live a "generous life".  It's not referring to money in this instance.  It is talking about how we relate to people.  How we value them.  How we give them dignity.  If we do this, it says, it will cause them to "open up to God, our generous Father".

Having just finished celebrating Easter, we are often reminded of how Peter was quick to speak and slow to listen. Unfortunately, I'm more like Peter than I can to admit.  There is hope however.  That's the beauty of santicfication.  God continually works on us.  It's just that some of us are harder to work on than others!  But if you keep reading past the gospels, Peter does all right.  God did use that personality for His Glory.

Soli Deo Gloria