When's the Last Time You Had a Bad Attitude?
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| Precious Aimsley |
Sitting in the arena with 3,699 other Christian leaders, there should have only been holy thoughts going through my mind, but I must be honest, the music was not my preference. Now that's interesting because I have always been open to all types of music in church. I like hymns; I know I should be embarrassed to say that and that it makes me sound old fashioned, but it’s true. I love contemporary praise and worship. And gospel can also be a favorite and when the banjos come out I can sing country Christian with the best of them, but....what I was hearing almost sounded sacrilegious.
The music sounded like it could have come out of the Munster’s House about 30 something years ago. It was rock mixed with glockenspiel. The words were all right, but the music was not. I was an old fuddy duddy, just like those people who write on the comment cards at church, but don't sign their names when critical of the music. It's too loud… it goes on too long… I hate standing and on and on they go.
Isn't God funny when we start a conversation with Him about our desires and our concerns and even complaints, He often speaks back with words we didn't necessarily want to hear. The whisper that I heard was pretty convicting. The conference was about how to reach the next generation for Christ, not how to reach the old, the middle aged or even the already saved. It was to reach the young and the lost. Now do you get where am going with this. The music was not meant for me. Once I got that whisper from God, I had to look at things in a different way.
It didn't change my feelings about the music, but it did re-frame my reaction toward it. Instead of being upset over it, I began to pray for the next generation.
Some lessons take more than one encounter, so here is my second confession in the same day…when I heard the baby in the audience a few rows behind me; I began moaning in my head “It's going to be a long day having to listen to that baby. Why would anyone bring a baby to a two day conference and expect to get anything out of it?” But what was I thinking; God had already chastised me about the music? This baby is the next generation and the parents need to know how to bring her up in love and knowledge of the Lord. So once more I had to confess my sin to the Lord and instead pray for the parents to be able to learn from the conference and for the child to grow to be a mighty child of God. And guess what I didn't hear a peep out of the child the rest of the day. I even took the time to seek the family out and found out that the little one’s name is Aimsley which means joy of life. I also think that the parents named her that because she will have purpose in life.
Lord forgive me for my critical nature and help me to be willing to encourage the next generation for Christ, not to complain and hinder the work you want to do in and through them.
Luke 18:16 But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these."
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