Do you ever meet a person, and your first opinion of them is something like, "Huh. That person sure has a lot of ... character. I'd be OK with it if they just stayed on that side of the room."
We had a new family move into the ward this week. Actually quite a few new families. That happens about this time of year when you live in a college town. There was a specific woman who caught my eye. She made a few comments in class, she seemed really nice, I just didn't know that I wanted to be friends with her. Pretty much I don't have enough charity.
Then, today, I was given the chance to do a service opportunity with her. We talked, we got to know each other, we learned some stuff, and when we left, she told me that she wanted to do something with me again. I gave her the basic, "Oh, uh, yeah... that would be good, although Hod and I are really busy, so it will be hard to find a time..." Pretty much as non-committal as I could get.
I got home, and thought about what had happened. Really, she's nice. She wants to do whats right. She is a newly-wed, and trying to figure out married life. And there I was, being all sorts of mean in my heart. I was kind enough on the outside to make this nice woman think we were friends. Then I turned around and grumbled. Why do I do that? Why do people (Namely me) think that I'm better than anyone? I have issues, I'm not perfect, I do stupid things, I can be hard to handle at the beginning.
So, this is the plan: I, Paily, am going to get over myself. I'll be honest, I don't plan on inviting them to a sleepover or anything soon. But I plan on finding a way to get to know this person. To get past the quirkie outside and find the warm fuzzy center. We may never be the best of friends, but I will come to love her as a child of God. Think I can do it? Here's hoping!
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
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4 comments:
You go girl! What to work on perfecting yourself! Hooray for growing experiences!
I know you can! We all do it and we all need to slap ourselves mentally and quit it!
I know I have those kind of inner conversations all the time... I guess it feels good to know I am not alone. Here's to hoping it works at great... and hoping I can make progress in this area also! Love ya sis
Of course you can do it. Our ward started a Book of Morman challange about 2 weeks ago. We have reading assignments every day with a quote and some scripture to mark. about the third day the quote was "Character is the ability to carry out a decision after the emotion of making the decision is past" Author unknown. I realized that that is a lot of my problem when I don't finish a goal I've made. My motivation is very strong when I make the goal, but as time goes by, I kind of lose it. I'm really trying to work on that one. Good luck with your goal
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