People always comment on the differences in people and things across the United States. I’ve always known that the south is different, but like they say you don’t appreciate the differences until your across the country and people look at you strange when you say yes mam and no mam. One lady asked if I was insinuating she was old…not at all…I’m just being polite.
I also say that dreaded term ‘Bless your heart.’ I can’t decide if this is a good thing or bad thing. Apparently I have an accent, which I was never aware of before. I have to spell my last name in the mail room and every time I do the person behind the counter wants to know where I am from. I appreciate it. A lot of times I get ‘oh yeah, you are that girl from North Carolina.’ That statement leads to the thought, how did you know I was from North Carolina and who is talking about me? It might be flattering I’m not sure, I just hope the conversation as good.
This brings me to next thought…my mom use to tell me in college (when I went the first time) that you are the company that you keep. I hated when she told me that because I knew I wasn’t doing and saying the things that my friends were. Needless to say I quickly learned the term ‘guilty by association’ and those same ‘friends’ and I got kicked out of college. So there’s that. She was right, she was exactly right, you are the people you surround yourself with. You pick up the habits of your friends. Certain words, mannerisms, even their not so great traits of eye rolling and resting you know what face. It rubs off and eventually your reputation proceeds you.
Reputation…that dreaded R word. It usually never fails that the one day you have a bad day is the day people remember you. That one day you say something stupid. Or the day you stub your toe and say a ridiculous word. The great thing is that we can recover from these little things. We can’t recover from the big ones without a whole lot of forgiveness and Jesus’s grace and mercy. I’m in no way saying that I have this mastered, I know I have done things that change people’s whole prospective of me whether I was speaking from a place of love or I was speaking from my mouth without thinking. Oh the number of times I have put my foot in my mouth and opened a can or worms. Sometimes the look on my face can give people the wrong impression. I can be stand-offish and people think that means I don’t like them. That’s not true, it’s just something I need to work on. If I want people to know me by my reputation I want them to know that I love Jesus and I am real person.
Bible College is a small world. You find that out very quickly. There are dynamics I don’t understand and unsaid ‘rules’ that make me want to pull my hair out. There are people that are as sweet as pie and others I want to hit in the face. We are people first and foremost. In the past, churches (you know the body of Christ) have turned me off from the idea of church. I’ve seen ugliness in a place that is suppose to be a place of beauty. Bible college is a sort of church with an element of realness thrown in (because we all live here too.) I’ve learned a lot in the short time I have been here. More than I think I expected, but for today and this post, I’ve learned that Jesus is still working on us and that our reputation should reflect His characteristics. I don’t know if I will ever master this before I get to heaven, but I want to be known as that girl who loves Jesus.
Once I leave here, going to church will be my ‘bible college’ though it may not be perfect and I might not care for some of the people…I know that the Lord is working in them too. I can’t see the condition of their hearts but I do now the condition of my own. I hope that whatever church I end up in the community will know us by our reputation and that we are a community of believers who love Jesus and others whole heartedly. This compels me to work on me now and make sure that my reputation that proceeds me is one that is glorifying to the Lord.
“She opens her mouth with wisdom, and on her tongue is the law of kindness.” ~Proverbs 31:26
I’m not really sure if this flowed the way I was thinking but hey, it’s a blog not a spiritual theory paper. If you take anything from this post, just know that your mama is always right.
Speaking of California…there is a hairstyle that is not really a man bun not really a short kept cut. I can’t wait to discuss this with you. It’s a new level of no.
Hello. 