Live by the example you'd like to live by . . .

A dearly departed pastor was constantly reminding us that we have to always give a good example because we may be 'the only Bible' some people read. Not being anywhere near perfect, I've fallen down on this more than once time in my life but the pastor's words are always close to the surface of my brain and they have brought me up short on many an occasion and I've remember to act like I'm supposed to not as I want to in order to give a good example.

I ran into a situation a few weeks ago that brought this strongly to mind. A former acquaintance had decided we would no longer be on speaking terms for reasons I have yet to figure out. As chance or, perhaps, God, would have it, we ended up at the same event. I attended with a group of young adult friends who also knew the person. Even as the person was obviously going out of her way to ignore me, I worked equally hard at not letting on to my young friends that anything that petty was going on. No one spoke of it so I figured no one had noticed which was all to the good. The young people (friends of my children who were also there) are very sweet, gracious people and I didn't want anything to hurt them or our outing because I knew they would take it seriously to heart. End of situation . . . or so I thought!

Last week, my son and I were out to lunch with two of the young people, having a good time, talking, joking, and enjoying the time together. One of them asked me if I knew why our former mutual friend didn't like us anymore. I said no and continued with the conversation. The topic didn't go away as the other one said it was very sad and we have to pray for them. I agreed and we finally left the subject.

It made me realize that even if we have a realistic reason to now avoid  someone, it isn't always the best way to handle it. One might think the actions aren't noticed and would be very surprised, as in this case, that the actions had been noted and they hurt. When you don't present yourself and actions as the Bible possibly being read by others, you end up extending the ill feelings to more than just the people(s) intended.