Christians, Why You Gotta Be So Rude?

“Sunday morning jumped out of bed

Grabbed energy from the coffee pot

Got in my car raced like a jet

All the way to the church parking lot

Ran in the door to shake some hands
Smile and hug a few necks
At church we are sweet to every man
Yeah, yeah

But get us back to our social media life?
Where devil’s advocate we are
With our words we stir up friction and strife
And cynical and bad attitudes we spar

Why we gotta be so rude
Don’t we know we’re all human too
Why we gotta be so rude
Why can’t we just love anyway
Encourage each other
And love anyway
Encourage each other
In everything we say
Encourage each other
We are actually family
So why we gotta be so… rude?

I hate to say this, you leave no choice
Its time to grow up, man up,
And quit acting like mean girls and boys
Put away the childish ways
Give patience and kindness every day
We are not of this world
So let’s stop the insults mid-hurl
And shine Jesus anywhere we go

Can we love one another for the rest of our lives?
Say yes, because the world needs to know
The saving grace of Jesus before they die
May we be the salt and help them grow.

Why we gotta be so rude
Don’t we know we’re all human too
Why we gotta be so rude
Why can’t we just love anyway
Encourage each other
And love anyway
Encourage each other
In everything we say
Encourage each other
We are actually family
So why we gotta be so… rude?”

There…that’s my version of the raggae-pop band, Magic, song “Rude”.

My daughter loves the father version that was written and sang on You Tube and honestly, the words “Why you gotta be so rude?” go through my head often as I read through social media feeds.

As Christians, we are called to be different in this world.  Why is it, so often, we blend right in with the world? We say things (or rather type things) that are hurtful and yes, just downright rude at times.  I’m challenging myself, and others to go a month without running down anyone, any project, any fund-raiser, any celebrity, any politician, anything….they say what is done for that long will become habit…I’d say that would be a great habit to begin! And perhaps, somewhere in there, a little wisdom will take root and genuine love and care will grow!

Now, let’s do it! Go shine, family of God, go shine!

Come Monday…

Dear Teachers,

Come this Monday morning, my family will wake up early, have a big breakfast, put on new everything and then I will listen to weeping, wailing, and moans loud enough to wake the dead while I try to snap pics of this yearly ritual.  They don’t get it. They don’t get that these pictures I take every year captures memories. Years from now, when I look back to the pictures I will take Monday morning, memories will flood back of this 2014/2015 school year, and you will be a part of those memories. Memories beginning a new era for our children in a new school district.

That in itself is huge. We have been very involved in our schools for the past eight years.  We have had great years here, made great friends here, and learned so much here. Last year, I believe was the best year we’ve experienced, so know it was with many prayers that my children are in your classrooms this Fall.

Today I can look back to the pictures I have taken since preschool and remember the many teachers who have blessed my children’s lives.  Now, you are about to be a part of those memories and I want you to know you’ve already been  prayed for and those prayers will continue.

My kids will not come to you for direction in life, manners to be taught, or to be taught right from wrong. They have been taught these things at home. My prayer is that you will, however, reinforce these things in the classroom.  Please don’t lead them astray in the way we have raised them, expect yes ma’ams and yes sirs from them, and correct them when they do wrong and please praise them when they do right.

My kids also already have friends, so please don’t feel like you have to be super cool to be their friend. I need them to have a teacher, not someone trying to dress, talk and act like they do, but rather someone they can look up to as an authority figure and hold dear, with much respect.

My husband comes from a family full of teachers and I myself use to teach a class of kiddos too, so know we pretty much always take the teacher’s side and we will have your back!  I look forward to a year of growing, learning, and challenges galore and also to having you as part of the village that helps to raise my children.  My prayer is that, come the end of May, my children are not only smarter and wiser, but they are better people for knowing you and having you as a part of their lives this year.  I also pray that your life is a little better for having them in your classroom and that you may see Jesus shine in their lives throughout the year.

With promised prayers,

“Mom” to two of the greatest kids in the world

They’re coming YOUR way!

Half a World Away…

Your eyes haunt me.  The terror on your faces I am not able to erase from my mind.  You are a mother.  You are a father.  You are a Christian.  You love your children to the moon and back.  We are the same. We are so different. We love God with all our being and yet one of us doesn’t quite comprehend what that exactly means and one of us does. Completely.

Half a world away from I’m throwing my child on the back of a horse or on to a football field, you are throwing yours up mountainsides to avoid torture.  While I tuck mine in at night in their comfy little beds and sigh about having to get them yet another glass of water, you are huddled on a hillside with your child, holding them in your arms and praying that water comes before it’s too late. While I drive taxi for my children on a daily basis running through Taco Bell or Chick-fil-a, and not thinking twice about throwing down a ten-dollar bill for food, you are running beside or carrying your child trying to outrun the evil of this world, without food. 

This past Sunday my family and I went to church, and while I stood there and sang “And Lord haste the day when my faith shall be sight; the clouds be rolled back as a scroll. The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend; even so it is well with my soul.” It was your faces I saw.  The faces of modern-day Christian heroes. Martyrs to make famous the name of the Lord.

There’s so much I want to say to encourage you and yet feel so humbled to even try. To think of being killed, or the horror of my children being killed for our faith is beyond my comprehension.  I don’t know persecution and loss like you know it, but God does. All I can say, is keep the faith of Paul, knowing those saints that have gone before  you are cheering for YOU!

The same God who created this world in six days, parted the Red Sea for His children, saved Noah and his family from the flood, rescued Daniel from the lions’ den, walked with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego through the fire, brought Jonah out of the mouth of a great fish, healed the blind and lame, raised the dead, and conquered death is with YOU! He loves you! Well done, good and faithful servant. Well done!

In His love,

Your sister in Christ