Show the Love

Yesterday I set up a table at a craft show to promote my Pampered Chef business, which I started to help pay for our adoption. Of course there were lots of other folks there, some shopping and some promoting their businesses just as I was. One of the vendors was a group from a local church in the area. They were selling all kinds of cute little country decorating items to benefit the youth and, I'm assuming, that the ladies who were there were the mothers and leaders of this youth group.

I was so disappointed, as a Christian woman, to witness the attitudes and behaviors of these ladies throughout the day. They were very catty, talked about what others were wearing and just were not friendly. My table just happened to be right beside theirs so I was able to hear some of their conversations, watch them look over at me and then turn their heads and whisper to each other and talk about the way another lady was dressed because they didn't approve. It really made me upset. Where was the love of Jesus? They had a sign that they displayed on their table that obviously stated they were there on behalf of their church. If I noticed I'm sure others did too and I just hate to think that others may have that as their only example of what Christianity is like. 1 John 4:20 says, "If anyone says, 'I love God,' yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen." There's a song by Rhonda Vincent called "If you don't love your neighbor you don't love God" and the words to the Chorus are so true:

Oh, you don't love God, if you don't love your neighbor
If you gossip about him, if you never have mercy
If he gets into trouble, and you don't try to help him
Then you don't love your neighbor, and you don't love God.

I just didn't feel that there was any love being shown to their "neighbors".

Now, I want to say that I am not perfect in any way. I mess up every day and I'm sure there have been days that I have been unloving and unloveable. I just hope that is the case for those ladies and this is not an everyday thing. But, you know, I just don't think that's the case. This is sad for so many reasons, 1. They are the examples to the youth of that church, there were quite a few young girls with them. 2. We are charged as Christians to show the Love of God to the world around us. The saddest thing of all is the lady who they did not approve of her way of dressing, I found out today that she is a wonderful lady with a heart of gold who has experiened TREMENDOUS abuse in her life. I just hope that she was not aware of the things they said about her and I hope that anytime I'm tempted to be unkind in this way that God brings this experience back to my mind.