Civility Week 47, Nov.19, 2012

Don’t mistake my kindness for weakness…I just hold it together in a civil way!  Anonymous

Ah…the year is winding down. Didn’t we just get started a few months ago? I’m taking a deep breath as we head into the Christmas season. And I don’t even mean the shopping. When you work in a church office, the only other season that rivals the Christmas season for crazy, busy, insanity is Easter week!

So in these final days of my Civility Project, I thought this quote was apropos.  Since I am still working hard on maintaining a certain level of civility towards all mankind, especially when reading about the lack of it in the news, and in politics, it’s enough to make you lose your nice self.

So when people think I’m being a pushover because I’m smiling, they just don’t know the whole story! Honestly I’m still working on the smiling part too.

But there are good people in the world.  Truly…they just don’t make it in the news or get their smiling faces splashed all over the internet because they are still being nice people.  I think the world would have been long gone before now if there still weren’t nice people in it. I always think of the reading where Abraham asks God if there are 50 righteous people in the city of Sodom will God not destroy it?

And he gets God down to ten people. So if God won’t destroy a town because even just ten good people are in it, that means I need to be at least one of the ten in my town. So keep going on the civility and smiles.

Wars have been in our history, bad governments, people doing stupid or horrible things. But God calls us to keep going on despite it all because He is always there. It’s us that do the leaving, the quitting, the complaining about how hard life is.  He truly made it easy for us to follow Him. It’s when we are tempted by the devil to give into selfishness that we mess up again.

So when I say I forgive you for pulling out in front of my car, flipping me off because you are angry about something,  I can be civil about it.  It doesn’t mean I’m weak…in fact it means I’m strong, strong enough to resist the urge to lash out at your lack of manners or sense of fairness. I am strong because I believe in a God of forgiveness and if He can forgive all my mess ups, I have to try to forgive yours too!