Oh Be Careful Little Mouth What You Say, and so on...

In the age of reality tv, smart phones and drive-through windows, courtesy doesn't seem so common anymore.  We are constantly ON - hooked up, linked up, powered up - jacked up!  Surely I am not the only one concerned about the level of self-absorption being taught to this generation of kids.  But then, look around!  At a nice restaurant.  How many twosomes have at least one staring at a smart phone rather than into the eyes of the 'someone special' across the table?  The kids aren't the only ones being affected and that example is what they are mimicking.  How many car rides have kids in the back wearing headphones and staring at yet another screen watching exactly the same cartoons, movies or games they stare at when home?  I love the memories of playing the license plate game, or the billboard sign game or I Spy with my girls when we took road trips!  Looking out the window and seeing new things gave us something to discuss and we learned not just about the places passing by, but each other!  Shoot, we still do that when we have the luxury of time together on the road.  The most popular movies today are sarcastic, perverse and rude, rude, rude - and those 'funny' lines are the ones that everyone quotes.  Now, I am not without a sense of humor.  There are times and places for that sort of thing (well, except for the perverse things - no time for that!),  but VERY young kids are picking these things up and spouting them out and while the adults in the room get a kick out of it, to be very honest, it is no laughing matter.  In Max Lucado's A Love Worth Giving, Chapter Six brings us A Call To Common Courtesy, based on 1 Corinthians 13:5.  "Love is not rude."  Go to Walmart or the airport and find a corner.  Just watch and listen.  Wow - the level of rudeness is astounding.  Perhaps because we run at such a hectic pace, cell phones in hand, laptops fired up any moment we sit down, television sets or radios constantly running in the background, we are simply exhausted, overloaded.  Our wires get crossed.  We are trying to watch the news and are instead barraged by talking heads, yelling, interrupting and berating eath other.  Loathsome behavior.  Paul wrote that love is not rude.  The Greek word for rude means shameful or disgraceful behavior.  In this day and age, everyone is concerned with their rights but God calls us to a higher, more noble conern.  Insteand of asking, "What are my rights?" we should ask "What is loving?"  (Thank you Max!)  I realize that when I feel stressed, my mouth speaks in a rude way.  It isn't the words necessarily, but the delivery of them that are unloving.  The tone of my voice.  The lack of hesitation.  Occasionally, my nasty little condescending manner or rudeness creeps out.  I normally hear it and apologize right away, but sometimes, I have just had it and don't want to continue taking it!  But, God listens to my words.  He knows my thoughts and my heart.  He forgives me and is merciful ALL THE TIME.  (We used to do this sing-song phrase with the youth at church.  We'd call out "GOD IS GOOD?" and the kids would call back, "ALL THE TIME!"  We would then call, "ALL THE TIME?" and they would call back, "GOD IS GOOD!".  I loved that.  Still do.  Sometimes I want to yell it out in the middle of WM, but I know I would get carried off in the back of a padded wagon...  Jesus was courteous in dealing with others.  Even when He lost it at the temple, His was righteous anger and He did not sin.  There was no rudeness in Him.  There is a verse of scripture that I silently quote often, and if you know me very well and spend any length of time with me, you are likely to hear me voice it out loud.  "Do your best to live in peace with everyone." (Rom. 12:18)  Even when others mistreat us, wrong us, misbehave toward us and don't deserve our loving attitude, Jeses admonishes us to do just that.  Love in a way that the world cannot understand.  We are here to serve a purpose.  If we speak and act like the world, how will anyone see or hear what it is we are called to do?  I find that the songs I was taught at church, when very, very young, still speak to me.  The wisdom of a childish understanding is amazing.  So when I am tempted to be rude, I hum the tune to the children's song, Oh Be Careful Little Mouth What You Say.  That simple reminder puts me back on track.  And I finally figured out why!  Because GOD IS GOOD?  ALL THE TIME!  ALL THE TIME?  GOD IS GOOD!