Confrontation and Conviction

I witnessed a thought-provoking event today. Yesterday, while the girls were testing, I hung out in a lounge in the building with some other parents. One woman in particular was a rather loud, outspoken type. She had a lot to say to the people she was sitting with about politics, religion, the health care system, etc -- I didn't pay much attention to it all. There was also a Hispanic man at another table, friendly guy, but not talking to anyone in particular.

Today, I just dropped the girls off at nine and didn't make it into the lounge until 11:30 to wait for them to finish. When I got there, this woman and this man were sitting at a table finishing up an obviously emotional and powerful conversation. From the bits and pieces I heard, apparently the man yesterday overheard the woman talking (who could avoid that) and heard something that bothered him, something that he felt showed a bitter, sinful attitude in her. And he was eaten up for the rest of the day by the conviction that he should confront her about it. So, he prayed all night, and he spoke to her today. And predictably, she was quite offended -- at first. But she heard him out and eventually humbled herself and saw he was right. By the time I got there, she was thanking him for having the courage to confront her and they had a group prayer there in the lounge.

It was quite a sight to see. And I found these two people to be very impressive.

This gentleman has guts. I don't know that I would have the courage to confront a stranger like that about anything, much less about a spiritual issue. But clearly, that was exactly what God wanted him to do, and he did it. That's what I call being Spirit-led.

And this loudmouth lady who annoyed me so much yesterday -- I'm probably even more impressed with her. She heard the truth, and she listened. She allowed her conscience to be pricked and recognized her wrong. And not only that, but she thanked this complete stranger for loving her enough to speak the word of God to her. Amazing.

All this happened on the day I'm reading a chapter in a book about peacemaking in families -- specifically, about giving and accepting criticism. I've already decided that this is something that we all need to work on in our family. Would that we could learn from this example.