Common Courtesy

Something has been bothering me a lot over the years and it has come to a head lately as I look around me in life, and that is common courtesy. Somethings I can see being a little more relaxed at, but others I still believe is common courtesy to others. What brought this to a head for me was two separate events over the weekend. On Saturday evening my Mother in Law took my family out to a bean supper. I was wearing my ball cap to the supper as I usually do when I am outside, and upon entering the fellowship room of the church I removed my hat and with lack of space around the table I clipped my hat to my belt loop and proceeded to sit down at the table. Down the table from me sat two men I would say in their 3's or early 40's both wearing their ball caps during the meal. Then the other stark contrast was my 19 year old daughter was asking people to please pass the beans or other meal items,and thanking them for it when she received it. The older couple across the table made the comment about her politeness,and it made me feel very good about the way I tried to raise my girls. The second event that irritated me this weekend was the next day at church they had the seating arranged in a circle around the communion table which I enjoyed, and a benefit to this is you could see more people around you during the service, instead of just the back of a bunch of heads. I looked over during the service and there was this one young man about the same age as my middle daughter and that s 19, and he was wearing his hat during church, not only wearing his hat but wearing it sideways in that ridiculous "gangstah" style that the young kids seem to want to emulate today. I can tolerate the relaxed style of dress prevelant at church today even though I was brought up that you wore your Sunday Best to church Sunday morning, and I even enjoy being able to go to church in a more relaxed style, but I also feel that this relaxed style should not override common courtesy.

A contrast in this was several weeks ago I went to a concert at the church in Union by two very talented musicians. After this concert I was talking to a young lady who happens to be the mother of a classmate of my youngest daughters. This lady kept calling me sir and Mr. Bartoswicz. When I made the comment that I wished sh would call me by my first name she responded back that she did not feel comfortable doing so for two reasons, first I was an officer in the military and she was enlisted and second I am substantially older than she and she was taught at a young age that you showed respect to those older than you by calling them Ma'am or sir and by the title Mr. or Mrs..

We have lost so much of this courtesy in our society today, our children call our friends by their first names, we walk by people struggling with packages without offering to help or even hold the door for them. Men do not treat ladies with respect or dignity, nor do women expect it anymore, sometimes even degrading a man for doing it. It is common courtesy to hold a door for any person. I tell my daughters that if they have a date pick them up at the house and the young man just sits in the driveway and honks the horn they are not going out for them, for if the young man can not get out of the car and come to the door to escort them out of the house, he is not worth the effort of your being seen with him., But I would expect them to do the same thing if they were picking the young man up at his house to go somewhere, because it is common courtesy.

I say it is time to make a difference and let's bring back some courtesy and manners back into society. Let us make this a more sociable place to live where we express gratitude when people do things for us, and we help others in our day to day lives rather than just being selfish and expecting the world to do for us all the time. We are connected to each other in more ways than we know, and the more we do for others, and the more we treat others with dignity, the more we are doing for ourselves, and treating ourselves with dignity.

From Gale Farm Ministries Web Site blog

This is a repost of my blog page from my ministry website that I feel compelled to post here today

I have been trying very hard not to get political on this website, because I firmly believe that republican, democrat, independent, libretarian, all believers are still brothers and sisters in Christ, and I will not expound on my political stance beyond to say I vote in every election because I believe it is not only the right thing to do, but part of our duties as American Citizens.

However a quote I heard on the news this morning deeply saddened me. President Obama stood there and called those that disagree with him as the enemy. I found and thought what was great about this country was that we could disagree politically, go out an vote out conscience for the candidate we thought best represented us, and still be friends of those who we disagree with politically. A statement like the one that President Obama made goes a long way into driving a wedge between the political parties I thought one if his campaign promises was to find a way to work together with those who disagree with him and reach a common ground. A statement such as calling those that oppose you as the enemy does not reach across the aisle but builds a wall in that aisle that many would not want to take down. In this tme of economic crisis and national turmoil the president should be trying to find a way to build up relations and not tear them down. I even had a "friend" tell me a couple of months ago that he couldn't consider our realtionship a "friendship" anymore because of our political differences, I should inject here that we have many other things in common like our love for the state we live in, our love for the community, our interest in the trades and many other things but because we disagree fundamentally on the direction of the country as a whole we should no longer relate as friends. Is this really the direction we want this country to take to deepen that divide between red and blue as the news has dubbed it, or are we to be a country that works through our problems with a common discourse, and some give and take. what would happen if we heard..."Gee Harry I never looked at it that way, maybe there is some merit to that argument" or "You know Judd, now that you put it on paper and show me how this works I may not agree with everything you say, but this idea does have merit." Instead all we hear is how the Republicans want our seniors to eat pet food, and the democrats want to spend us into oblivion.

Let's get real folks, and think about the true question...and I am going to use a new slant to this becasue this is a Christian Website and look at this from a Christian perspective, let us ask ourselves in this case...."what would Jesus Do?" we have a tendency to look tot he government for answers, but we should really be looking inward, to the spirit that resides within us as Christians a part of the Holy Spirit. We have the power to change this mess the country is in, we have the power to make things right...we just need to focus on hwo to do it rather than pointing blame at everyone as to how we got into the mess. Let's get real folks God is our power God is our walking stick, we have to rely on Him to be our support in times of crisis, adn find common ground with those we disagree and find a way to fix the problem rather than be a part of it.

I'll come down off my soap box now and go out and cut wood to help keep my family warm during the winter, and think about the answeres to the questions I just raised. What will you do to help make the situation better.?