Put On Love: Common Courtesy

I went to a revival last night and really got stirred up. There were probably about two thousand people there and the preacher kept on yelling out about how God is going to make a revival in Atlanta. All the people there were so excited shouting "uh-huh," "oh yeah," "amen" and some "come on!" I could not help but think that all these people were there expecting God to just start up the revival. However, God does not work that way - He could if He wanted to because He is God, but that is just not His mode of operation. In order for there to be a revival in Atlanta, we cannot just go to some long worship fest and have it happen. If the people of Atlanta want an effective revival to happen, that is absolutely filled with God and is unquenchable, we have to have a revival within ourselves first and we have got to get back to basic common courtesy.

I cannot help but wonder how many "Christians" have Jesus plastered across the bumper of their car, then proceed to be a jerk in the drive-thru at a fast-food restaurant? How many "Christians" actually hold the door open for people that are behind them when walking into a store? How many "Christians" are polite when talking to other people, older or younger? Christ-followers get a bad label because it seems like "Christians" cannot manage to even show the slightest bit of common courtesy. (As parents, you get to see a little bit more of my real side.)

Sunday we are going teach the kids that Jesus wants us to be nice to everyone (Colossians 3:12-14). The best way that we can practice that is by doing it on an everyday basis (common courtesy). We will demonstrate a few different things they can do to be courteous on a day to day basis.

There will be a challenge for them in this coming week (June 1-7). The challenge will be for the kids to use as much common courtesy as possible. These courtesies include: Opening the door for someone else, Picking up something that someone dropped and handing it to them, Saying things like "Hello" "have a nice day" "thank you" "your welcome" "yes mam" "no mam" "yes sir"and "no sir." Take notes on how much they actually do and who ever has more than 15 of any of these, in any combination will get a treat the following week. You have to sign off saying that they did it for them to receive the treat.

I know some of this may sound silly, but you would be surprised how many kids and adults do not do this stuff. Maybe you don't do it- my challenge is also for you to try it for one week. I guarantee if we all did these things, we would improve the image of the Christ-followers.

Grace and peace,
Brantley