Openness and respect.

I have recently opened my eyes to acceptance. Being a follower of Christ, I try to live by His example. I believe in God and Jesus and the redemptive power of the cross and the resurrection from the grave. I don't force this belief on anyone. This isn't really all I want to talk about, but it does tie into it. For most of my adult life I thought that if you were gay you were a sinner. I would make jokes about gay people. In fact, there are some that used to call me gay. I'm not sure why they did, but as a rebuttal I'm pretty sure I called them the sons of satan for doing so at one point. So why was it ok for me to make gay jokes? It wasn't. I used to think that killing was ok too. Long story short, I thought a lot differently than I do know. But I still called myself a Christian. Just goes to show that you can say dumb things and still call yourself a follower of the most perfect person ever.

Over the past year I have had a change of heart. Where did this come from? Opening myself up to the Gospel (good news) of Christ. Really trying to find out how Christ would act. Did Jesus make fun of people? Did Jesus kill people? No and no. things I "thought" were ok. So I've tried to be open and accepting of those that are unlike me. I'm not great at it, but learning everyday about what it means to follow Christ and how to apply it to my life. This also includes not only accepting people as friends, but also not talking about them behind their back about why I disagree with their life but still loving them as people. (I repeat....I'm not perfect at this but getting better). This all came about when I was reading a friends facebook feed and I realized I see this person degrading God and Jesus or speaking badly about what I believe. It took me by surprise, since I have been sticking up for this friend repeatedly. It made me feel pretty bad. The thing that they were talking bad about was the very reason I have come to know and think highly of this person. Kind of ironic isn't it. But then I as I write this I realize how often I unintentionally do the same thing to others. Talk about hitting yourself in the head!

What's the point? Always be aware of who your audience is. People have ears everywhere. You may be causing someone hurt and not even know it. And for no good reason either!

Another personal example. I was in line at kohls wearing my VFF's (the toe shoes) and made a comment about kohls toe shoes only having 4 toes and how weird that was. I meant no harm by it and a young mom was in front of us who just had a child with a foot deformity and was hurt by my remark. They told me months later how much it hurt to hear that. Turns out they were a Facebook friend of mine.

Choose your words wisely. Did you hear that Jonathan Geiman!?!