Love is not rude

Love is not rude. Again, this looks like an obvious one. Of course you aren't rude to people you love. Are you? Um... Maybe a bit. Well, a lot. It's like with the kindness thing. It's pretty easy to be nasty to people you like, to be rude, to cut them off mid-sentence, to ignore them, because you feel like you can get away with it. But it's easy to go a bit too far, to say something you'll later find yourself regretting which leads to an argument.

Not listening is often seen as being rude. And that can lead to problems. As an example: apparently, today I was told we were going to Camelot theme park. I don't remember ever hearing that. So, when the time came and my mum was like 'have you played your clarinet, we're going soon', I was understandably confused. She was annoyed I hadn't listened and paid attention. Fair enough. I can see her point. Not listening is one of the things people find most annoying. In order to assure people we're listening, there's this thing called back-channel--we go 'uh-huh', 'yeh', etc. If you ever stop giving back channel, it really disturbs people because it feels like you're not listening, leads to uncomfortable silence, can be quite embarassing. How do I know? We did a little experiment in English Language. Quite amusing for those of us in on the joke, frustrating for people not in on the joke. I'm rambling a bit, sorry. At any rate, people get offended if they feel like you're being rude and ignoring them. It makes them feel belittled, it's part of the whole respect thing I was talking about earlier. If you love someone, you respect them, you give them your attention. Being rude doesn't do that.

What it all comes down to, is that all people deserve respect and consideration. They were 'made in the image of God' (Genesis). Now, don't you think that deserves a bit of respect? After all, in dictatorships, in celebrity culture, the image of the leader or celebratory is displayed prominently, and people are expected to give it respect. How much more respect do things reflecting God deserve?

Remember: God made you special and he loves you very much.