Friday, June 1, 2012

Be Kind, Rewind...for the next Angel.

My parents have raised me well. I always look both ways before I cross the street, I don't do drugs, I say please and thank you. One thing that my parents taught me and my sisters was how to interact with strangers rather than just saying "don't talk to strangers". Okay, they were strangers to us but to my parents they were relatives, friends, or work friends. I will never forget my parents taking Kelley, Maggie and me to dinner parties and telling us to look for the lady with the purple eye. Now to a 5 year old it is challenge but to my parents it was a way to get me to look into people's eyes when I was talking to them. Ingenious I tell you. 


I'll credit my ability to talk to just about anyone with this lesson. So to Mom and Dad, thank you. I am happy that I wasn't a child that was kept on such a tight leash that I was told never to talk to strangers. Well, I don't think a leash could stop me, from what I hear I was a pretty rowdy red headed child. That's not the point though, and I'm sure you're all wondering what the point here actually is. Let me tell you. 


As I was reading my Bible the other day at the coffee shop here in Fayetteville (haven't left for Ghana yet, Sunday!) I came across Hebrews 13:2, "Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it."


 How cool is that image?? By talking and simply being kind to those around me, the woman serving me coffee, the guy out in the parking lot giving out parking tickets, the man at the bar asking for a to-go cup of coffee, any one of them could be ANGELS. Okay so maybe not the guy giving out parking tickets, that's just not nice, but truly, God can and does send out angels into the world He created to interact and be with us.


It's that idea of Be Kind, Rewind. Who knows, back when there was VHS, you could have rented Angels in the Outfield right before the angel in the real world. Alright, so that's a stretch, but what if you hadn't rewinded a VHS for an angel, I bet you would have felt really bad. I have my bad days, as does everyone else, but I try and be nice to those around me despite not being so happy that day myself. I mean, why shouldn't I be nice? It can't hurt me to be nice so why not smile at a stranger? And now that I know God has angels down here to keep tabs on me, you can bet your bottom dollar that I will try harder to be nicer! 


I encourage anyone reading this to try and be hospitable to those strangers around you when you aren't feeling your best. It feels pretty wonderful to be that stranger.


**This is the last post for a while, I won't be able to blog while in Ghana but I will be posting an update once I am back in the states!***

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