I Got a Rude!

Have you ever got a “rude” before?  One of my favorite episodes of the Andy Griffith Show is “The Education of Ernest T. Bass”.   In an attempt to help Ernest T. receive his school diploma, he becomes a handful for Andy and Helen.  In one scene, he continues to interrupt class, and Miss Crump hands out a “rude” to him.  Watch this short clip:  I Got a Rude

As humorous as this clip may be, it’s not too funny when others are rude.  Here’s some examples:

• Pushing your way onto an elevator before others exit.
• Grunting when spoken to; no smile.
• Standing in the middle of the aisle with your shopping cart while others need to get around you.
• Walking through the left side of an entrance door and others are trying to correctly use that exit.
• Unsupervised children being able to run through another’s house, a store or at church.
• Talking with food in your mouth.
• Treating store employees or servers at a restaurant unkindly
• Checkout clerks who carry on conversations with fellow employees while you are going through the line.
• Misuse of the cellphone (i.e., while in the public restroom; in the checkout line)
• Children and adults with bad manners at the table, etc.
• Unkind words of shame, put downs, etc.
• Not holding the door for others.

To be rude is simply to have bad behavior or bad manners.  To be rude sometimes involves being loud, obnoxious, pushy, crass, crude, and uncaring. Being rude is simply a result of our selfish heart.

Have you ever wanted to give someone a rude or . . . have you been a candidate for a rude recently?

So, what is the opposite of being rude?  Let’s let the Word of God answer that one.

So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. (James 4:17)

Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. (Philippians 2:3)

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful. (1 Corinthians 13:4-5)

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. (Ephesians 4:32)

But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. (Luke 6:35)

Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. (Colossians 3:12)

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:5-8)

And He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.” (Mark 9:35)

Let’s leave the “rudes” with Ernest T. Bass, and let’s walk in the Spirit so we can be servant of all.