Shut Your Mouth

So, I mentioned in my last note that I am a lover. My senior year of high school we read the book "The Five Love Languages". At the end of the book there is a self-test to discover which love you speak and need the most. Mine was Communication (go figure). So not only am I a lover.. I am a talkative lover. (A lot of my friends are probably reading this thinking "no kidding sarah") If I care about someone I make sure to talk to them on a daily basis. Even if it's a boring "Hey, what's up?" conversation.. I just love keeping in touch with my friends and making sure they know I care about them.

I say all that to preface that this bit of advice/information is just as much for myself as the next person, if not more so.

We (we as in people, more specifically Christians) have got a real problem with this whole talking business.

I don't invest much time in the news but what little I have heard/read about lately has had to do with cyber-bullying. Scientists, surveyors, investigators, what have you, claim that people have lost the emotional connection to communication because of all the online communication that has replaced a lot of verbal communication and face-to-face time. No wonder kids have no trouble saying terrible, degrading things via text or messaging. I know the majority of my fights happen over text, and 99% of the stuff i would never say if I was standing face-to-face with someone.

A friend of mine once stated that the church has become a hostile environment for Christians.. a place where instead of having a circle of trust and love most people find back-stabbing, envious people only conscious of their own agendas.. or even the complete opposite, that we as long-time Christians get an air of self-righteousness and any imperfection must be weeded out of the group.
I would venture to say that a lot of the social media and online interaction has contributed a lot to the lack of emotion in communication. But I think a lot more of it has to do with the condition of our relationship with Christ. Christ never judged a sinner, only loved them and encouraged them.
We are not perfect, and never EVER will be. Being a Christian is about making a commitment to Christ and then with the help of His spirit, living our lives to reflect more and more of His fruit and less and less of our flesh. The goal isn't to reach a point of perfection, but to deny our flesh more and more each day.

How can we do that when we spend all of our time judging and gossiping... ripping each other to shreds with rumors, stories, and gossip.
No wonder Christians hide and bury our sins, live double lives... and end up being huge hypocritical spectacles to the world.

So here's a challenge, to myself and the people around me.

Shut your mouth. Respect your friends and their words.
Take their confidence in you more seriously. Love them, flawed, broken, and all.
(Which if you see a trend here, would go back to loving people as dearly as God does).