Good Thursday morning, my friends.
Speaking for the men (of which I am one most of the time), teasing, kidding, and put-downs could be an Olympic sport. Perhaps we could counter-balance this with encouraging words and building each other up? This is advice for me to live by. And I bet God will provide you with an opportunity to strengthen someone today with your words.
Grace and peace be yours in abundance,
Bruce
Father, I pray for a spirit of cooperation and eagerness to contribute to the needs of the whole body, so that Your Church is built not just with sweat, bricks, and mortar but with love, integrity, care, and cooperative teamwork.
Therefore we go forth in unity and purpose as we do our part in building each other up as we encourage others to use their God-given talents and acquired skills, all the while striving for unity in the faith.
In our service we desire to please You even as we serve and strengthen one another.
In the name of Jesus we go forth in faithful service. Amen.
(http://adailyprayer.wordpress.com/2014/01/14/a-prayer-for-a-cooperative-spirit-2/)
This reminds me of a recurring theme with the people I know on Vancouver's Downtown East Side: the inability to handle verbal abuse. Not only do we need to put a watch on our own tongues, but we need to know how to parry what comes out of someone else's mouth, and the only time-tested way of doing that is to forgive the person, immediately and unconditionally.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, one of the main reasons so many people do wind up in "reduced circumstances" on Skid Row is because they haven't been raised to forgive. Like speaking words of life rather than putting people down, forgiving is something we have to be commanded and make a conscious effort to do.
For all the "life skills" we're supposed to impart to our youth -- sound financial judgment, cooking, starting a fire by rubbing two Boy Scouts the wrong way -- it seems like we're overlooking two biggies: the power of our words to affect others, and how to de-fang bullies. The answers to both are in the Bible, but that's not cool in school, so authorities continue to make vain attempts to legislate against bullying, which only makes put-downs and "words of death" more subtle and more likely to be defended with "cantcha take a joke?"