Prayer should be the means by which I, at all times, receive all that I need, and for this reason, be my daily refuge, my daily consolation, my daily joy, my source of rich and inexhaustible joy in life. - St. John Chrysostom

Describe a character as though they could hear you.

My workshop professor said this after reading a fellow students choice of words when describing a rather heavy woman in her story. She wrote on the margin of her paper, don't do that to her. I thought about this on my way home after workshop. I felt funny about having to go home and re-write the descriptions of my not so flattering fictional characters for my next assignment. In the back of mind I kept thinking, I should even be careful about the things I say when it comes to thinking about just a fictional character. Little did I know that I would be taking a home a valuable lesson based on that one comment in a margin. How can you describe a person who may not be appealing in a tasteful manner. After coming home from workshop that night, I used the description I had read earlier in class once more and re-wrote the description the way I had read it, but in a more pleasing way.

She had a full face. Her eyes where large and blue.. Her lips-pale pink that blended in with her fair skin. Her shoulders were broad and her legs were long. If you saw her from behind, you would have mistaken her for a football player that you didn't want to mess with. She seemed like the kind of woman that could take care of herself. However, when Lucy spoke you were neither afraid nor defensive. There was something about her southern accent that was calm and welcoming.....

This isn't to say that what I have written above is a masterpiece filled with compliments. However, as I was writing this, I did what I thought any person in my situation would have done. I took facts from the story I had read and concentrated on describing her physical appearance in a somewhat tasteful manner, after having described her physical appearance, I described the good that I saw in her. This reminds me of 1 Samuel 16:7 Have no regard for his outward appearance, nor for the maturity of his stature, because I have refused him. For man does not see as God sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord sees into the hear. Sometimes we can be quick to think about someones physical appearance and pass judgement without even giving them a chance.

Recently, I had the pleasure of being able to a partake in a service that helped serve the less fortunate. I would have never went if it wasn't for the people among me that had inspired me to serve with them. Watching them serve with love, despite the awful smells and the danger that comes along with it pushed me to give this a chance. Not one person was rejected, not one person was forgotten. In fact, they had committed themselves so much that they established relationships with many of them. Same time, same place, every week. Had they been turned off from physical appearances and not interacted with them, I would have never spiritually grown the way that I did in just one day of experiencing this service with them. I met a lovely woman named Anna, who was very eager to talk about God. I was very blessed to had met her and she is constantly in my prayers now. It's scary to think, that at one moment in my life I would have passed by Anna, not noticing her...purposely.