“Learn to tame your mind and never spoil the mind of others.” When asked by a guest where to go for good nightlife a hotel clerk responded by saying all the places that she didn’t like and to stay away from, which left only 1-2 suggestions. I wondered how the guest felt, new city, needing help and was told more places not to go to. I will remember that the only disability in life is a bad attitude.
I study done last year by Group Publishing noted Churches are not the top spot for being the most friendliest place in town. I think that it is most interesting to see and read what “those other people” think of churches? How do their assumptions about “our” faith communities compare with our own assumptions about how we’re seen or how “we” experience it?
At a local church I was named Minister of Hospitality, so we toured other cities and other churches to see what happened between the “Sidewalk and Sanctuary.” Most of the time my experience fell right into what this survey says. I was invisible most of the time, ignored, and only greeted when it was time to ask for money, information or to volunteer.
I get that church life for many (including myself) is about being a part of a family. You worship together, share, grow, live, volunteer, eat, and become part of a family within a family! For the first time or 5th time attendee, how do they fit in?, how do they feel, are they a welcomed guest or “one of those other people…”
The same can be said of us at work, shopping, eating, volunteering, etc. How do we interact with those whom we know (even those whom we may not have on the Christmas Card List) versus those complete “strangers?” Do we all follow the Golden Rule of treating others as we wish to be treated? Perhaps an updated twist is that we should NOT treat others the same way we wish not to be treated!
I hope, pray and give thought that regardless of what anyone’s faith believe, life path or choices that choose to make, that we all spend time thinking about how what we say and do affects us, those around us and those whom we do not know.
We can be the change we seek in this world… I will remember that kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.
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