When ‘Keeping It Real’ Goes Wrong

“Pastor’s wife beats down pre-teen girl at park… More on your News at 10…”

That’s how the headlines could have read, had I acted on a situation in a less-than-respectful way.  Let me back track a bit...  Tonight during my walk with our doberman, I headed over to the park where I let her run in an enclosed area – since there were people there I headed out around the park trail first.  On my way back, I stopped near the swings to take a quick break.  Some kids were on the nearby jungle gym.

No sooner than I sit down, does an obnoxious young girl open her mouth to start talking trash, with a vocabulary that would rival that of a sailor.  I’m guessing she was no more than 13, but who knows, because as I get older my estimation of ages has changed…  Plus it was dark enough  that it was tough to see, and apparently so dark that she started in by hurling Mexican and Puerto Rican insults at me (I’m very clearly white, by the way.)  There were 3 people with her, one of which I think was actually another girl’s mom – who were Hispanic, which made me wonder why on earth they’d be with this foul-mouthed child who just insulted their race, and then made it worse by trying to swear in Spanish (quite poorly, I might add).

So this girl makes her way over to the swings, trying quite obviously to get a rise out of me.   She clearly had a huge chip on her shoulder and must frequently seek attention by causing trouble.   Seriously, she tried pushing all the buttons – and I was tempted to ‘keep it real’.   After I stated that her friends should be embarrassed to hang around someone so ignorant and rude, especially after saying I was a Pastor’s wife, they started telling her to shut up and defended me.  Too funny.  Thing is, is that I struggle with anger issues, so within my mind I’m flashing several scenarios…   Seriously.

It got to the point that I told her she’s not attracting anything good in her life by speaking and acting this way, to which she quickly retorted, “Well I don’t need no friends, I’m fine all by my own”.  Which got me thinking – That which is within the heart does proceed out of the mouth.  The root of her issue is loneliness – it explains the need to seek attention (albeit in a negative manner) and the obvious deep-seeded anger for a girl of such a young age.  I told her I’d pray for her to grow up and out of that.  In the end when she realized I wasn’t going to ‘keep it real’ she finally said “Oh I was just playin’ to see what you’d do.”  Riiiight.

I tell that story to share this with you – We all have our obnoxious pre-teen trash talking girls in our life.  For some its road rage from other drivers, for others its rude or lascivious co-workers.  One thing my father-in-law says:  “You have to keep going through a test until you pass.  It’s best to pass it the first time.”  I hope I passed this test, so I can move on to the next level.  May we understand the depths from where people’s words and actions come from, in order to have compassion rather than hatred for them.

In The Word

But what comes out of the mouth gets its start in the heart. – Matthew 15:18

Photo Credit: stephencaver.com