Today in Adult Sunday School we talked about Practicing Our Faith and making choices. We talked about the “yes” and “no” choices we make every day. And we made a pie chart of all of the things that are important in our life, things we have said “yes” to such as family and church and community. We discussed how when we say “yes” to something new there has to be a corresponding “no” to something else. Because nobody remembers that you say “yes” to everything. However they will remember that you don’t follow through when you do say “yes.”

This discussion reminded me of an incident from when I was a teenager. I attended MYF (Middle school Youth Fellowship) religiously every Wednesday night. Our youth leader was Randy and his wife Sue usually attended also. Sue was a youth counselor at Foundation II. Both Randy and Sue were very funny, nice people and I really enjoyed spending my Wednesday nights with them.

One night I came to MYF in a horrible mood. I threw my coat down and sat with a huge scowl on my face. Sue pulled aside and she asked “Christine, is anything wrong? Is there anything you want to talk about?” I snapped back with “NO!” But my tone didn’t seem to affect Sue. She just said, in a very pleasant and concerned voice, “Well if you want to talk I’m here for you.” I felt like such a jackass for being such a jerk to her. She was just trying to help me and I was biting her head off.

Today I don’t even remember what I was angry about. [I'm sure it was about a boy...most teenager girl angst begins with boy troubles.] But I do remember that conversation with Sue and how I felt for speaking before thinking. Although it felt like a huge problem at the time, whatever I was angry about must not of been that big of a deal or I would still remember it now.

I often tell people “you can only control yourself.” You can’t waste your time worrying about what somebody else will do. You can only worry about what you are going to do. And hopefully that “sombody else” will change their actions in reaction to your actions. If somebody is rude to you and you yell back at them it usually leads to a big altercation. But if somebody is rude to you and you tell them “that really hurt my feelings” then you take back control. They may still rant and rave and just not care, but you are then in control of yourself and you can walk away knowing you are a good person.

Just something to think about. Nobody’s perfect. God knows I slip up and don’t always take my own advice…heck I slip up daily. But I try.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 20th, 2005 at 11:37 am and is filed under Raising Rugrats. Comments are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.