I woke up at 8 am this morning and made a quick phone call to my cousin, Theresa to get a hair cut. My cousin, Theresa had just woken up... I felt so bad for the early call but she reassured me it was ok because one of my other cousins was planning on getting his hair cut at 10am. It was actually pretty selfish of me to call that short notice for a hair cut. Sometimes I get in this mode of now now now...its kind of sad that I am this way, theres no excuse. But as I sat there in the chair getting my hair cut I just realized how important it is to have family and close people that love and care for you. I realized that no matter how long you haven't talked to the person or seen the person, family is family and they care about you no matter what. There was a family friend that came while I was getting my hair cut and he didnt even recognize me until my cousin turned the chair and immediately he greeted me and said hi. He said he didnt recognize me because he thought I was some celebrity from Thailand that was getting their hair cut (he said this in a jokingly way). Then another cousin came in to drop some money off to Theresa. He said hi and continued to say how no matter where he's at he runs into someone that knows me and they always say good things about me. Wow! Its the small things that count in life. You never know how you impact people.
I started to think about how I impact people. About how we either impact someone in a positive or negative way and what the results are of that. But the Bible talks about how we should treat one another...
1-4My dear friends, don't let public opinion influence how you live out our glorious, Christ-originated faith. If a man enters your church wearing an expensive suit, and a street person wearing rags comes in right after him, and you say to the man in the suit, "Sit here, sir; this is the best seat in the house!" and either ignore the street person or say, "Better sit here in the back row," haven't you segregated God's children and proved that you are judges who can't be trusted?
5-7Listen, dear friends. Isn't it clear by now that God operates quite differently? He chose the world's down-and-out as the kingdom's first citizens, with full rights and privileges. This kingdom is promised to anyone who loves God. And here you are abusing these same citizens! Isn't it the high and mighty who exploit you, who use the courts to rob you blind? Aren't they the ones who scorn the new name—"Christian"—used in your baptisms?
8-11You do well when you complete the Royal Rule of the Scriptures: "Love others as you love yourself." But if you play up to these so-called important people, you go against the Rule and stand convicted by it. You can't pick and choose in these things, specializing in keeping one or two things in God's law and ignoring others. The same God who said, "Don't commit adultery," also said, "Don't murder." If you don't commit adultery but go ahead and murder, do you think your non-adultery will cancel out your murder? No, you're a murderer, period.
12-13Talk and act like a person expecting to be judged by the Rule that sets us free. For if you refuse to act kindly, you can hardly expect to be treated kindly. Kind mercy wins over harsh judgment every time.
James 2:1-13 (the message)
You should treat everyone equally regardless of what their background is, no matter what they look like. We can't control what others do and we can't control what our surroundings do but we can control what we do. We need to make it intentional to treat everyone the same.
You just never know whose life you are going to impact in a positive or a negative way. Let's make it intentional to positively impact this world we live in. We want change but we must be that change!
"miracles are happening, miracles are going to happen. Pray.Believe.Know.Get Inspired!"
