The Story of How I Met An Attractive Guy...and Was Not Attracted To Him

I sure as heck don’t live up to that verse every day.  I’m sure a few of my friends can testify that the words that come out of my mouth aren’t always good or pure ones.  So that whole sermon really hit me in a convicting and humbling sort of way.  I was like “Wow.  Every thing I say or think about really does matter.”  We will give an account before a holy and just God for every single thought we have, and every word we ever utter.

Meeting this attractive guy and seeing how unattractive he slowly became the more and more he talked made me wonder how often I have been perceived as such to others.  How many people have I met who thought I was a fun, cool, pretty girl but once they hung out with me for a while, they slowly changed their minds about me?  That really sucks to think about, because I’m sure it’s happened on more than one occasion.  I wish I knew who I could apologize to and who I could re-meet so that I could live up to a better example of the One I serve.  It just goes to show how imperfect we, as Christians, still are.  Just because we preach about “having clean mouths” and “being good witnesses” doesn’t mean that we won’t be prone to fall short of our convictions.  But we need to constantly be aware of how we are portraying our Savior through not only our words and actions, but even through our thoughts.

Soon after we met, Mr. Attractive-But-Not tipped me a $2 bill for a coffee I made him.  He said that he had gotten it at a strip club when he pulled cash to tip the dancers.  (There are a couple strip clubs in the Portland area that only give out $2 instead of $1 bills.)

I think beneath all the cussing and fake confidence, he really is just a kind, sweet, handsome man who has been hurt by the world and had made wrong choices in previous years that turned around and burnt him.  He knew he was hot stuff, though, and a lot of times, people like that will hide behind their outward appearance, hoping that others would just see them as hot stuff too – and not the real them.  Not the real person who doesn’t want to show their broken heart, the scars, the mangled mess of torment they’re in.

A year and a half later, I still have that $2 bill.  I pinned it up on my board to serve as a reminder to pray for him.  I haven’t seen him since but hey, you don’t have to be in contact with someone to know that God is using your prayers.

Oh and trust me, it reminds me to pray for myself.  God alone can testify to how many times I’ve had to bite my tongue to not utter negative words.  And I know my family, coworkers, and church family can say that there have been occasions when I said things that shouldn’t have been said.  There’s a fine line between honesty and too much bluntness, Raquel.  It’s all a part of life.  It’s a learning process.  The tongue is untamable, yet the Spirit of the One who made it resides in us.  Kind of a crazy thought, huh?

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My pastor is currently teaching through a series called Voice Control.  Check out his messages here.