go ahead now

Today we hear from Origen in A Year with the Church Fathers, and his ideas are put to music by the talented Selena Gomez.

Origen tells us that we need to treat everyone with gentleness, even those who attack us for being Christians. We never know who might be won back to the faith through a gentle answer. And I've found, perhaps even more importantly, that the person you're talking directly TO isn't always the only person listening. Especially when you have conversations on FB. So many times, I'll be arguing some point with someone, and they'll get a little unpleasant or pushy in the way they are talking to me. But I try (sometimes after taking a moment to calm down) to respond kindly and with charity. And then, somewhere in the conversation, I see some other person who I didn't even know was following along will "like" my comment.

And while it's true in a way we can SEE on FB, it's also true in ways that we're not always aware of in other parts of our lives. Especially with kids, right? How many times have you said something, positive or negative, and then heard kids repeat it sometime later? People are listening, even when it seems they're not.

Let's give them something worth listening to.

God, thanks for teaching us to speak words in love, so they're worth repeating.