Social Etiquette

Last Christmas Eve, while most of us celebrated blissfully, my good friend Jessica said goodbye to her young children and entered the hospital to start chemo. 

This is a message from her to all of us, and it is something for all of us to think about in relating to those around us . . .

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Whatever happened to people’s etiquette? This has been bothering me for quite some time now.

I’m recovering from AML (Acute Myeloid Leukemia) . I’ve had five chemo treatments and have lost my hair twice. It was a long hard year, for me and my family. I’m in recovery now THANKS to God and my Stem Cell Transplant donor, who I believe was sent by God.

Proverbs 11:13 says: A gossip betrays a confidence, but a trustworthy person keeps a secret.

I implore you to be a trustworthy person to yourself and to others, if something you say could hurt someone please think about it before you say it out loud!

When you’re shopping with a loved one, and you decide to gossip about the people in the store, they can most likely hear you! Twice this has happened while I was shopping at a local store and once when I was with my sister. All three times I overheard people talking to someone else, asking if they thought I was a lesbian because of my short hair.

I’ve actually been approached twice and asked the same question, once by giggling high school girls and once by a 90 yr. old woman!

Most of the time my answer has been pretty standard: “No, I have cancer, but thanks!” And I walk away, leaving them dumbfounded.
My hair is something that I can’t control, but your thoughts are something you can!

I think that the internet has to some extent, hurt peoples’ built in etiquette filters. The internet is SO anonymous, that people can say whatever they want without repercussions. Then when they go out in public with Real Live People, they don’t know how to filter their thoughts anymore, and all this junk and filth comes out of their mouths.

Dear Lord, Please help us to filter our thoughts and our written words, so that we may speak and post thoughts in a way that pleases you Lord, and shines a light so that others know that we are of you, and not of this world!
Jessica