The last few days has been an extreemly emotionally draining week for me. There were a couple issues that popped up creating much added stress and tension. Obviously I can't share all these details.
Thursday was a special parents night at the school. I was assigned to sell hot tamales (not the candy). I gladly accepted. I hate having no clue what I'm suppose to do and would much gladly have a task for the entire time. I was with two other "gringos" and a few of the Mexican staff had to take a picture because it was quite comical. It might have been the first time 3 American females sold tamales in Mexico. I can tell my Spanish was improving because that's what I had to use and I made it through the night with little help. There were only a few times I wasn't exactly sure what I was being asked and that was mainly because I was distracted.
After the parents meeting I had two parents come up to me. One humbly apologized for her child that was involved in one of the weeks stressful incidents. She thanked me and totally backed up my decission as it would be what she did as a Christian parent. It was very good to hear back from this parent because I had been extreemly discouraged earlier. I had been made to feel like I had rediculous expectations, but I knew in my heart as a parent I would want this to be done. It was so good to hear from this parent that they were thankful that I did interveen.
Then I had another parent (who is also on the board) come up to me and buy a tamale. As he did, I asked a few questions about his son. He very well meaningly takes me to the side to talk. I know that his intentions were good, but he ended up being extreemly discouraging. It was discouraging because while he thinks he knows what's going on and how I should be handling things he really doesn't. He didn't take in accout that my situation is different than his and he really doesn't know anything about me or what I have done except for what he's heard. The things he was saying I could quickly have come back with why this is a totally different situation and I could have argued everyone one of his points, but thankfully God gave me the grace to just listen. (Although I ended up crying at the end of the conversation.)
This really made me think how our words affect people. I'm sure I have been guilty of doing this many different times. We might be well meaning, but then we end up coming across in an extremly hurtful way because we lack understanding. We think because we had a situation similar that we are an expert. We might not realize really what a person has done or gone through and instead of sitting down to find out we assume they must not being doing something right.
This gentlemen that came up to me spoke in a very quite calm manner desiring to help, but he compared my situation to things that really weren't comparable. He basically had made judgement of what he thought he knew. Much of me would like to share all the examples I could give of what he said and why he was mistaken, but that will do no good. I just need to take this and learn from it. I need to try to watch what I say that I don't end up extreemly discourageing to others. Because although I had two parents come up, one that was encouraging and one discouraging, I couldn't help dwelling more on the discouraging comments than the encouraging ones. I need to be more cautious with the words I say to others.
Colossians 4:6
Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.
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