“Even a child makes himself known by his acts, by whether his conduct is pure and upright” (Proverbs 20:11 ESV).
We decided to replace the failed chimney liner for the upstairs stove. The workers came and everything seemed to be good until we later lit a fire to test it out. Praise God for smoke alarms! Once I turned on the light, you could see smoke swirling around the ceiling. We opened doors and put up fans to move the offending odor outside. I called the company and the receptionist let me know the owner would be coming out.
When the owner arrived and assessed the situation he explained why what the service technicians had done did not work. He got busy and quite a while later finished up. The owner told me he had completely redone the job so that it would meet his satisfaction. I had not asked him for a complete do over. It was his choice to take time and lose money in redoing the job. I was impressed at his honesty and thankful for his willingness and desire to do the job the right way. Then he thanked me for not getting upset or complaining about the other workers. He said, “We are all human; we all make mistakes.” And I thought of the apostle Paul and said, “I certainly understand that. I am chief of all mistake makers!”
I did not realize what an impact I had made by simply not saying certain things. I’ve worked at my current job for almost eight years. There have been many times people have pointed out to me, in a variety of ways, that I made mistakes. Through those experiences, I’ve found that not only do I make mistakes but so does everyone else! While I do still get upset, I try, not always successfully, to speak to others in the way I would want them to speak to me, with kindness and grace. You do not have to sound mad or upset to convey the message that something didn’t happen the way it should have. We can have a Christ-like attitude in all situations if we are willing to allow Him to lead us.
It would not have been hard for this man to identify us as Christians. Our Bibles and devotional book were on the ottoman. The music standing open on the piano were hymns. He probably heard me on the phone for work talking about worship. On the surface, we looked like pretty good Christian people. But what would that all have meant to him if I had gotten upset and said mean or nasty things? It would have misrepresented God and been worse than him not thinking we were Christian at all! We are witnesses not in just outward appearance or in what we do say but also in what we don’t say. “Set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity” (1 Timothy 4:12b ESV).