It Is Not My Right to be Rude

It is not my right to be rude to others. No matter how bad I feel or what mood I am in, I do NOT have a right to be rude and treat others badly.

This week has been tough for me in many ways. I have had terrible head-aches and back-aches. My nerves have been on edge and my blood pressure has been elevated. My joints have ached so much that sometimes it takes all my strength to walk across the room. During this week I have caught myself being mean and rude to others. I am pretty sure I have hurt the feelings of others many times. I did go back and apologize; but I am afraid that I have damaged others because of my actions.

I pray that God will forgive me for what I have done. Those who I apologized to told me that they forgive me and do not hold it against me. I do! I hold it against myself. I had no right to treat these people the way I did. I growled, griped, and raised my voice.

What did Jesus do when He felt bad, tired, worn out? He never did any of those things. When they persecuted Him, spit on Him, whipped Him and beat Him beyond recognition, Jesus never growled, griped or raised His voice. He spoke not a word. He silently prayed for all those who afflicted Him, including me.

Please say a little prayer for me. Pray that no matter how bad I feel, how tired I get, or how used I feel, that I will always treat others as Jesus would treat them.

Thank you for listening and for your prayer support.
Sincerely,
Linda Pearson

© 2005 Linda Pearson

Special Prayer Request

As some of you may know, I joined our FAITH ministry a couple of weeks ago. This is an evangelism program through our church where we present an outline of the gospel message to people in their homes in order to try to reach people for Christ. I'm asking each of you, if you are willing to lift our entire FAITH ministry (consisting of about 40 people) up in prayer every day and specifically my team which consists of myself, ______, and ________. The first night of visits, no one let us in but there were two other teams that got to present the FAITH outline. One of the gentlemen had been sending his daughter on Wed and Sunday and he decided to come to services Sunday morning. He spoke to the pastor after the service and said he will NOT send his daughter anymore--he will BRING her!! His name is ______ and I know that he and his wife are currently separated. Please lift them up in prayer as well.

Last night, we did get in at one house. The girl's name was ______, she has a spiritual background and claimed to be saved but she did give a works answer when we asked her what did she understand that it takes for a person to go to heaven. It may be that she just wasn't able to express grace into words, as she said she was saved and did believe that it was impossible for her to lose her salvation.

I would like to keep all of you updated on our visits each week. Right now I am just learning, I had to turn in my Sunday School testimony last week and my Evangelistic testimony is due next week.

Just pray for us that we would be led to the right homes and that God will speak his message forth through us. Pray for me for boldness and that I would overcome my fears. Our pastor is always telling us that we need to "step out of our comfort zone" and that's just what echoes through my mind about a hundred times a day.

I also want to CHALLENGE each of you to step out of YOUR comfort zone and share the gospel with someone. I heard somewhere once that most people hear the gospel message 12 times before deciding to accept Jesus into their lives. You never know if you are number 5 or number 12, but each one is just as important as the last.

Thank you all for committing to prayer with me if you choose. I will pray for all of you as well.
Sincerely,
(Author's name withheld for privacy reasons)
(The names were removed to protect those who do not wish to be known at this time--Lord's Helpers Crew.)