Decidedly Different

I was at a funeral yesterday for long time Good Shepherd member Eileen Carpenter. She was 75. Her generation was decidedly different from mine. I saw that at the funeral. I was right on time for the service as Pastor Marsha officiated. Which meant that I was late by that generation's standards. I greeted the family and then moved to the rear of the funeral chapel. One older couple walked in to an already full chapel and moved to a couple of rows in front of me. There were two seats but they were in seperate rows, one in front of the other. The gentleman offered his wife the seat in front of him. As she started to move in, the man seated next to the empty chair saw what was happening and immediately stood up to move to allow the couple to sit together.

Here's what see that makes that generation different. There was no assumption on the part of the couple that they could ask anyone to move for their sake. They accepted the situation and lived with it. The other man didn't ask the question, "You wanna sit here?" He didn't offer the option, he just stood up assuming that a single man doesn't require a married couple to sit apart from one another. By the way, the man who vacated his seat didn't assume that he was welcome in the empty seat behind him either. He waited for the single young woman to invite him to sit down.

I'm just impressed when people assume manners and courtesies without pause or question. This season you will be presented with many opportunities to live out manners and offer courtesies. In the mall parking lot, the church parking lot, the check out line or where you sit in worship. I hope your faith will be lived out in both your places of worship and commerce.