Nice
My boys once worked at Handel’s Homemade Ice Cream & Yogurt Shop. It’s some of the best ice cream in our area! I remember them coming home and telling us tales of their experiences in the scooping business.
“It always amazed me how people order and receive their ice cream. Some just say, ‘I’ll take,’ or ‘give me’ - it’s weird. Then they sometimes take it and don’t say, ‘Thank you.’”
We as a family would talk about the basics of civility. “It’s so basic, boys, but so overlooked,” Cam and I would empathize.
Nice is nice. But as much as I like manners, I’m not interested in helping people be nice.
I think that’s what a lot of modern Christianity has turned into: a bunch of nice people. (Well, actually, there are a bunch of not-so-nice Christians you may have noticed, too.) Be nice. Look nice. Play nice.
I mean, don’t be a jerk. Say “please” and “thank you,” and for Pete’s sake, don’t slam doors in people’s faces. But don’t think that this - this basic act of being human - makes you a Christian.
Jesus didn’t die to make us nice. He “died to destroy the devil’s work.” 1 John 3:8. And we join Him in that work!
“THY KINGDOM COME… ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN.” Matthew 6:10
That doesn’t take nice people. It takes all the power of heaven brought down to destroy hell.
In Christ,
- Nancy
Your Calling For Today
Have you fallen into the trap of being nice? Don’t be unkind or unloving. But do check to see if your brand of Christianity looks like Jesus.