You've seen it all before. Come as you are. Experience the love of God here. Unless...you're poor, Hispanic, gay, democrat or otherwise. You get the picture.
The church, with its good intentions, has managed to alienate almost everyone. How welcome do you feel when visiting a new church if you look differently than the majority of the members? Do you catch the sideways glances periodically?
And what happens when you actually become a member and get to know the people? One day in small group, you reveal that your wife had an affair and your son has come out of the closet? What's the reaction? Pacifist smiles and sympathetic pats on the back? Offers of prayer? How soon until the coffee and lunch invitations cease? You have just been judged.
The "religious right" are known for being notoriously unaccepting of differences. Instead of running to the church for shelter, many flee for fear of judgement. The same is true for believers and unbelievers alike.
Rubies are rare and precious jewels. Every facet is unique. When they are broken, they can only be restored by the Creator.
2 comments:
Oh my goodness this is soooo true! I painted Peyton's toenails when she was about two months old and you wouldn't believe the amount of people who've been preaching to me about modesty and how they can't believe I will allow that. I felt it's just nail polish. I believe in modesty but I don't feel nail polish is immodest. One of my friends had the nerve to tell me that I have to watch that cause since our children are close in age she doesn't want her daughter coming to her cause I allow Peyton to do certain stuff... I was kind of hurt by that. I truly love God and want to please Him and besides that I love these two children and there are going to be certain things that my children are allowed to do and others aren't and vice versa and I would have enough respect not to do that to her child if I had her in my care. I'm just saying it cause this was revealed in our small group and it was made into a huge immodesty issue where they were asking Sam why he allowed me to do it etc. (Sam actually asked me to do it).
You know I wouldn't have had an issue if it had just been brought up once. I know as Christians if we think our Christian brother and sister is doing something wrong then I'm ok with voicing it so that wasn't the issue, the issue is after awhile it was being brought up to me constantly..."did you paint that baby's toes again?" and my answer was yes I touched them up cause they were chipping. It's like we couldn't agree to disagree and I noticed the calls tapering off a little cause maybe I was a bad influence I guess.
And this kind of goes along with your last post on women cause except for that one day it was never brought up to Sam just me offline.
So I don't know maybe I've done this to my Christian brother and sisters in the past and it could've been on some of the stuff you mentioned in your post and in that case it's a good thing cause I know first hand what it means to feel like I'm not part of the "religious right"
Although I am used to "church folks", I am still shocked that someone would condemn you over nail polish for an infant! I am actually ashamed. It makes me wonder if God is pleased with this behavior. But I think we already know the answer.
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