There used to be things that were commonplace: little acts like a man giving up his seat for a woman, or opening the door for her, or even just honest-to-goodness graciousness and friendliness. Unfortunately, you don't see much commonplace courtesy in our culture these days.
Today I saw something that reminded me just how far away from this we have strayed.
In my Linguistics class...Part way through the lecture, a young lady walked in, glanced around the room for an empty seat, and slipped into the last desk, inconveniently placed just inside the classroom door and underneath/against the blackboard. Ten minutes later, another woman entered the door. There was a momentary pause, and then, to the utter amazement of everyone in the room, one of the young men rose from his desk and offered it to the woman who had just entered. She was rather embarrassed (or so I assume by the fact that she turned red, and mumbled "are you sure?"), but accepted the seat. He proceeded to sit on the floor by the classroom door--though he shortly saw a chair in the hallway, which he rolled in and sat on. Five minutes later, another woman--late for class--walked through the door. At this point I expected another guy to get up and offer her his seat because a precedent appeared to have been set. However, nobody moved, and the young man who had offered his seat to the first woman, again rose and offered this new woman his "hallway" chair. He sat on the floor for the rest of the class period.
Is it just me, or is this rather surprising? This young man's selflessness stood out against the selfishness of today's culture.
It's little things like this that bless my heart. He had no idea that his "small" act of generosity toward another would reach beyond the immediate moment, and encourage me. Who knows how small a thing as a cheerful word, or a friendly smile, can encourage and bless those around us.
Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.
--Col 4:6
Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.
--Eph 4:29
5 years ago
4 comments:
Anne,
Thanks so much for sharing that story! I have printed it out to show my young, future gentleman (please Lord :) ).
Love, T
You guys blog way to slow..come on girl I check your blog everyday and the updates need to be MORE! :)
It's really about the "little things" isn't it?
Jody
I loved this story! It is true, not many young men do those things these days. My hubby opens the doors for girls at the college and he will most often get ugly looks from them with the I-can-do-it-myself- attitude and he gets discouraged by that. Today's world is definately different than it used to be.
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