When you meet someone for the first time, you kind of form your own opinion of who that person is. As the person begins to talk, you probably arrive at the one of the following conclusions:

1. He or she talks sense.
2. He or she talks nonsense/trash.
3. He or she is a very arrogant person.
4. He or she is well informed.
5. He or she is a very humble/polite person.

The foregoing suggests that one of the ways that people form opinions about others is through what people say. So in many ways, we build or destroy ourselves by the way we talk. No wonder they say that a man or woman can only speak that which is on his or her mind.

If there is one area that this manifests itself more than others, it is through answering the phone. Whenever I call people or offices, I have often times regretted my decision to call. Why so? Because people are very annoying when it comes to answering the phone.

It seems to me that most people behave differently when they are talking to the person they know as compared to the one they don’t know. Painfully, I have heard people complain that so and so answered them in a very rude way. Unfortunately, this even happens at places/institutions where politeness, kindness, and being nice are supposed to be the daily virtues.

I do recall with great appreciation the period soon after King Abdullah II of Jordan took over from his late father. To have a feeling of how the common people where people were being treated, he disguised himself as a common Jordanians and decided to travel using a taxi. As you can expect, the treatment was so different. But can you imagine the reaction when they
found out the true identity of their passenger!

Which leads me to this very nagging question: Why the double-standard when it comes to dealing with all God’s children? Why are we nice to one group of people while we are so mean to others? Why not treat all God’s children the same way?

Why? I ask again!

Just a thought.

Pastor Birai-612-386-4608
www.themaranathasdachurc.org