Out of the Mouth, the Heart Speaks

Out of the Mouth, the Heart Speaks.....However, as Christians, many of us learn to keep our mouth quiet in divisive or hurtful times. Grant it, some are better at it than some of us! I will openly admit that I am far from prejudice but as I start to examine myself I thought "let me define prejudice."

prej·u·dice

 [prej-uh-dis] an unfavorable opinion or feeling formed beforehand or without knowledge, thought, or reason.

The second half of this definition is really what jumps out at me, without knowledge, thought, or reason. The entire reason for this post is the lack of knowledge. As I am currently working at Papa Johns, there are many people there from a range of backgrounds. One kid in particular, our box folder. I have seen this kid there on various days, kind of quiet and reserved, ho knows my name, but wait, I don't know his! He wears his pants at his belly button and walks kind of funny, haha. He tries to talk to some of the people and at times is just shut down or they will simply just walk off. I was finding myself straying down the same path as many of the others and kind of picking on him, laughing at him, making fun of him, but all in my head, because hey, I'm a Christian and heading to the mission field and need to be striving to be above reproach! As I prayed for the Lord to open doors for me to share my testimony and my faith with those that I worked with, I found myself praying that He would break that mean streak in my heart! I found out the other night that this young man has a form of autism/ asbergers. Wow, I fortunately had a delivery at that moment because I wanted to crawl in a hole and cry! I did shed a tear as I prayed on my way to that delivery begging for God to forgive me for Pre-Judging that young man. Now keep in mind, I never said a word to ANYONE!

How often do we find ourselves being prejudice? As Christians, should we not be focusing on those that we would typically prejudge? Sadly, our nation and media has defined this word primarily in relation to skin color, nationality, religion or sexual preference. As I challenge myself, would you join with me to judge ourselves first, look at the sin in our lives and then as we look at those around us, we see fellow sinners. We are all sinners and fall short of the glory of God. Let us bare this in mind as we walk through life, the grocery store, the hardware store and especially at work. I have found that the more I self examine, the more compassion I have for my fellow sinners, and at times could use help from my brothers and sisters in Christ. 

Do we see any time in scripture where Christ was prejudice? Are we not to strive to be Christ-like? As the Lord is breaking me personally on this issue, we are studying this on Wed nights and I am personally gaining a lot from the study. In closing, let us show the world, the people on the streets, the people on drugs, the young mom who had a child out of marriage and her entire Christian family has all but shunned her, the kid with his ears stretched to the size of a half dollar, the guy with tattoos all over his body and especially our kids and families that see our sin on a daily basis. So no matter the personality type you think you have, be a butterfly and bust out of the cocoon and show Christ's beauty. (Thanks mom for the visual illustration) 

Let us focus on the condition of our heart and let that condition be in line with the Holy will of our Heavenly Father!