A Tiny Praise Report About Honoring God in My Behavior

You know how it goes. When you're really working on a particular discipline, you will be presented with very tough situations in which to practice and put some muscles on it. So, in my house we've been working on honoring God in our behavior, which means that we are all running headlong into circumstances in which it would be really, really easy to not do so.

Yesterday, my practice circumstance looked like this.



A snotty lady we encountered while running errands stood there sneering at my precious children (4 white, 1 black) and fumed with disdain,

"WHAT is this world coming to?!"

Its funny because as soon as I saw her and watched her lips curl back in disgust as she took in the sight of my beautiful, multi-ethnic family, I knew she would say something caustic. I took a deep breath before the ugly words came flying at us and prayed that whatever I did or said would be honoring to God.

I replied,

"Well, thankfully, this world is coming to
the aid and adoption of orphans."

and just looked back at her with peace on my face as she continued to glare at us.



YES! I almost did a ridiculous victory River Dance with my hands on my hips and my feet flying around right then and there!



For those of you who are wondering if we experience racism often, the answer is no, thank the Lord. Most people who say anything at all are completely lovely. But, when we have encountered racist ugliness I have really struggled with how to respond in a Christlike fashion and not *ahem* say something that is satisfying in the moment but that I regret later *ahem*. Especially when it's the N-word. Yeah, that's a toughie.

So, this was one of those spiritual muscle-building moments in practicing honoring God in my behavior and I did it! I spoke back instead of stammering like an idiot and chose words that I wouldn't regret later and...

I didn't even head-butt her! YEA!