Our demeanor is our witness

We have been on a weather roller coaster this winter. It has been warm, cold, snowy and just plain miserable.

I am not a big fan of the cold but I do love the look of the snow. I have to admit it is beautiful especially if I am standing in my living room looking out the window holding a cup of tea.

On the other hand, I have noticed that winter weather does not bring out the best in people. People seem to just love to complain about the inconveniences weather brings.

For example, my daughter was having a fit about a snow plow driver that covered her car with the snow that he was pushing. She had to go shovel it out before she could leave for work.

She wanted to call the city and complain. My question to her was, “Why did you park your car in his way? Didn’t you want your street plowed?”

Maybe she should have parked in the driveway and not on the street thus making his job easier. She needed to realize it wasn’t all about her!

I believe many people have developed a feeling of entitlement. Just like my daughter, they want all the conveniences but don’t want to put forth any effort of their own to make it happen.

I have learned over the years that life isn’t like that and that making an effort to be considerate and nice to other pays off in so many ways.

It is the little things that count.

This winter, my husband and I have made the effort to keep the area in front of our mailbox snow-free. If we want our mail delivered, then it is the right thing to do instead of complaining because the mail isn’t in the box on time.

As Christians, we need to make sure we don’t fall into the trap of constantly complaining about things.

The website gotquestions.org says it like this, “Complaining is certainly not a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) and, in fact, is detrimental to the peace, joy, and patience that come from the Spirit. For the Christian, complaining is destructive and debilitating personally and only serves to make our witness to the world more difficult.”

People see how we react to things and that is our witness for God to others.

What does the world see when they are looking at you?