{"id":410,"date":"2011-07-28T19:30:00","date_gmt":"2011-07-28T19:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/blog\/2011\/07\/28\/curt-convicted-contrite\/"},"modified":"2015-11-30T15:33:10","modified_gmt":"2015-11-30T22:33:10","slug":"curt-convicted-contrite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/curt-convicted-contrite\/","title":{"rendered":"Curt, Convicted, Contrite"},"content":{"rendered":"

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We\u2019ve had one day in over two weeks when the heat index wasn\u2019t above 100 degrees. Patience and tempers run short. People are testy. My DH had debilitating cluster headaches for three days. Wednesday it was 109, thanks to 98 on the thermometer, and the high dew point. Hubby went to bed at 8:30.
Not five minutes later, the phone rang. A woman asked for someone who doesn\u2019t live in our home. We don\u2019t have cells or caller ID (don\u2019t ask), and we get a lot of unsolicited calls.
I admit I\u2019ve never been a quick thinker (years ago a kid asked if my refrigerator was running and I went to look), so I didn\u2019t even consider asking who she was or the last name of the individual she wanted. I was curt, and basically hung up.
The phone rang again and the same woman asked for the same person.
I said, \u201cNo one by that name has ever lived here.\u201d
She verified our phone number, then offered, \u201cYou must get a lot of calls to be so irritated.\u201d
\u201cWe do. And my husband just lay down with a horrid migraine.\u201d I didn\u2019t apologize. She said, \u201cThe Lord be with you.\u201d I was convicted by her click. It sounded so final. It was too late to apologize or search for any more excuses. Humble, regretful, guilty. That old sin nature can still raise its ugly head. My mind raced to the Lord. Five minutes later, the phone rang again, but no one responded to my softer hello. What if it was a test of some kind? What if the caller really meant to call me to see how I\u2019d handled the ruse? What if someone was checking up on me to see if I\u2019m equipped for ministry? What if I missed the opportunity to entertain an angel? I was once voted Miss Congeniality. If those girls could have heard such a tone of voice, that trophy would belong to another. And a short tone like the one I used would never fly in the workforce. Contrition ran so deep I couldn\u2019t sleep. There is no excuse for irritability. A Christian has no reason to be rude. And Christians are meant to be in the Word on a daily basis. Oops. It was our anniversary and we\u2019d planned a day away from home, I hadn\u2019t made the time to absorb God\u2019s precious words. Early this morning, in the wee hours of dark, I turned to Ephesians, Chapter 4. Words are meant to be edifying. I\u2019m reminded to walk (and talk!) in a worthy manner, with humility, gentleness, grace. Forgiveness is a must, because I\u2019ve been forgiven. I\u2019m convinced a kind and loving tone turn curtness into congeniality. Have you been tested lately?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019ve had one day in over two weeks when the heat index wasn\u2019t above 100 degrees. Patience and tempers run short. People are testy. My DH had debilitating cluster headaches for three days. Wednesday it was 109, thanks to 98 on the thermometer, and the high dew point. Hubby went to bed at 8:30. Not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":1185,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[504],"tags":[286,287,196],"class_list":["post-410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editing-writing-advice","tag-contrition","tag-testing","tag-white-roses-in-bloom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}