A Year of Being Kind blog – Sunday, September 14, 2014
Forgetting to Be Kind?
I like to talk to my friends, or members of my family, on the telephone. I really do! In fact, I have a sneaking feeling I am a bit old fashioned in this regard. Since—I see people all around me texting on their smart phones. I am very pleased and proud to say that I have never yet texted. I have a dumb phone. An older flip phone that I’ve had for years. (My husband and I have not had a cell phone contract for some years, either.)
However, I am bound by convention. The rules of common courtesy, the rules that say I will not call after a certain hour at night, or the rules that say I cannot call before a certain hour in the morning. True, these rules have a little wiggle room, but generally, I can’t call before 9:00 in the morning—8:30, if I push it. And in the afternoon? Or evening? That time is a bit more fluid. But—even still. I run into problems.
I want to highlight a really BIG problem. I keep forgetting to call my friends and family members—at a time fitting to common courtesy. I remember I want to make the calls at awkward times. In the very early morning or in the very late evening, for example.
Isn’t this so similar to my on-again, off-again relationship with God? Thank goodness, I have increased my personal prayer time, and increased my time in other spiritual direction exercises. However, I still fall short. I still keep forgetting to actually enjoy the relationship. (It’s a darned good thing that I do not have restrictions or barriers between God and me. Additional barriers would be quite difficult. Or problematic.)
Thank God I can depend on God—the almighty, omnipotent God. Instead of myself, instead of me and the forgetful nature of my brain, instead of the on-again, off-again relationship I have with human beings. And, thank God for the timely reminder to call people at a decent, sensible time. (As I’ve said many times before, God certainly has a wonderful sense of humor.)
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A Year of Being Kind 