The Help

So, I realize that my last post was over 2 months ago, and I said I was trying to get better at blogging. Haha! Maybe in the midst of the craziness of summer was not the best time to try and start that. Oh well, I am going to try again :) There has been so much on my heart and mind lately that I want to share, but I will start with this...

Last week, Aaron and I went to go see the movie, The Help. If you have not seen it, I highly recommend it! But, just a fair warning, bring a box of tissues! ;) It is an incredible movie, and I will not give the whole movie away here on the blog, but just wanted to write some of the things I have been thinking through since seeing that movie. It really challenged me to think about the way that I view and treat other people. The movie takes place in Mississippi right after the Civil War, but when families are still using African Americans as "the help" to raise their children, cook, clean, etc. I have never understood the color thing. Maybe it is because I grew up with African American "brothers" that my parents were always taking into our home, and they were like part of the family. I never saw anything different. Or maybe, it was because I have always loved other cultures and diversity. In watching the movie, I began to pride myself in the fact that I would never treat those with a different skin color than me any differently.  I just couldn't believe that people would actually do that! However, over the past week, God has quickly humbled me as He has revealed the pride in my own heart. Maybe I don't struggle with skin color, but who are the people around me that I, for some reason, judge or look down upon? I have been more aware of that this past week than ever. My heart is often too quick to judge. But, why? What is it in me that thinks I am better than anybody else? My own pride and self-righteousness. I have realized, once again, my desperate need for redemption. So this week, I am thankful for the awareness of my own struggles and for abundant grace to grow and mature through those struggles. I read this in Philippians tonight:

"Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves...have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, 

taking the form of a servant..." Phil. 2:3-7

With Jesus as our ultimate example, let us strive to be more like him everyday. I pray that I would be quick to love and slow to judge.