Salutations, Sweet Friends!
'Tis the season to receive invitations for all sorts of gatherings- graduations, weddings, birthday parties, retirement soirees...
Have you noticed the letters, R.S.V.P.? The French words, Repondez, s'il vous plait, simply put, mean please reply.
Recently I had my hair cut and shared pleasant conversation with the young stylist. I listened as she expressed her plans for the future and tried to encourage her with analogous, "twenty-something" stories of my own.
At the station to my right, crude, curt comments were being made between three 'tweens. I studied the way they spoke to each other. Earlier, my husband and I had been harshly spoken to by a fresh barista. I thought, "Doesn't anyone know how to speak kindly anymore?" So there in the salon I purposefully created an acrostic :
R-Reply or React with a right heart, or wait.
E-Enter the conversation on your turn. Don't interrupt.
S-Speak as if it doesn't matter who is listening-your boss, spouse, pastor, God
P-Practice eye contact, attentiveness, and courtesy.
O-Open up, don't clam up!
N-Never say, "You never," or, "You always,..."
D-Do not return insult for insult.
Much of the problem of hostility comes from responding to someone without thinking. Most of us would like to rewind several conversations and start over. Perhaps, this acrostic can help us as we seek to respond to one another in love.
Sisters, in the book of Romans, we are reminded to never avenge ourselves. On the contrary, we are told to overcome evil with good.
How will you reply?
Swinging with you,
Alis
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