Good day, sir,<\/p>\n
I’m a bit frustrated. I don’t hear from the people of the church, even before I took a job that has me traveling for months at a time. All I ever have to keep me going in the faith is the Bible. I don’t want to give up on God just because people don’t check up on me.<\/p>\n\t
Over the years, I have noticed a strong tendency for people to complain about the very things that they do. The person who complains that the church is inhospitable never has people over to his house and declines invitations to come and share a dinner. The person who complains that the church is unloving never stays around after services to talk to people but dashes out the door, and you don’t hear from them again until the next time they come.<\/p>\n
Paul mentions this tendency, “Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things<\/em>” (Romans 2:1). Whenever I have a complaint about others, I try to remember to consider whether I’m contributing to the problem or solving the problem.<\/p>\n So, my question for you is: How often do you write to brethren and tell them how you miss them and what you remember best about them? Communication is a two-way street. My mother-in-law recently passed away, but what everyone remembered about her were the personal cards she would send. Even when she was frail and could not get out, she would write cards. Those cards always contained messages about what she appreciated about them. She would send the preachers cards telling them what a good lesson they had presented. She would send cards to tell someone she noticed being particularly kind to a child that they were a great mother. What made them special was that she meant what she said.<\/p>\n If you want people to remember you, remember their special traits. If you want people to send notes to you, send notes to them about what you like about them.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: Good day, sir, I’m a bit frustrated. I don’t hear from the people of the church, even before I took a job that has me traveling for months at a time. All I ever have to keep me going in the faith is the Bible. I don’t want to give up on God just…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[579,1513],"class_list":["post-82817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-friendship","tag-relationships"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":24463,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-do-some-people-accept-the-gospel-but-others-reject-it\/","url_meta":{"origin":82817,"position":0},"title":"Why do some people accept the gospel but others reject it?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 9, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My son had a question I am not sure how to answer.\u00a0 The question is:\u00a0Why is it that some people respond to the hearing of the gospel by accepting the gospel, and others respond by rejecting it?\" It is the same Holy Spirit that will convict of sin, righteousness,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":46938,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-wrong-to-indulge-in-food-and-drink-at-worship\/","url_meta":{"origin":82817,"position":1},"title":"Is it wrong to indulge in food and drink at worship?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 18, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is it wrong for members of the church to indulge in food and drink while worship is happening? We have this problem, and I need an answer with Scripture, please. Thank you. Answer: I've noticed that people like to make rules instead of citing the Scriptures. It is that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":42023,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-do-i-have-a-knack-for-noticing-peoples-emotions-and-helping-them-calm-down\/","url_meta":{"origin":82817,"position":2},"title":"Why do I have a knack for noticing people’s emotions and helping them calm down?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 1, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello! I read\u00a0an answer to an \"empath\" question. This has sparked another question within me. I have been a Christian and a member of the church of Christ for several years; however, I have a dilemma. I have always been able to \"read emotions\" and when I am around\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21784,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-can-i-do-about-getting-annoyed-with-people\/","url_meta":{"origin":82817,"position":3},"title":"What can I do about getting annoyed with people?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 26, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a problem with my attitude. I am a medical professional and I work in a very stressful environment. I choose this profession because I truly believed I wanted to help people to learn more about their medications. \u00a0I find myself getting frustrated and tend to sin when\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":43932,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-i-tell-people-im-not-interested-in-preaching\/","url_meta":{"origin":82817,"position":4},"title":"How do I tell people I’m not interested in preaching?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 11, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, Hope you can answer a question of mine that I need a biblical answer to. What to say to people who come up to you and ask you, \"Why don't you preach?\" I tell them not everyone is meant to be a teacher, and like it says in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49568,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/your-answer-against-a-person-questioning-his-core-belief-was-inappropriate\/","url_meta":{"origin":82817,"position":5},"title":"Your answer against a person questioning his core belief was inappropriate","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 6, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I'm not sure if you're the person I'm supposed to send this to, but your email was at the bottom of the page. I'm a member of the church and in regards to one of the Questions and Answer posts on the La Vista Church of Christ website, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82817\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}