A Distinguished Gentleman

As I sat in the dentist’s waiting room, another patient arrived and took the seat across from mine.  We both heard someone in the back say, “Barbara is here,” and she laughed.

“You must be important,” I said.  This got Barbara laughing again and reflecting on her eight-year-old great-nephew scheduled to be in an upcoming family wedding.  Recently, her nephew tried on the tuxedo he would wear to the event.  He looked at himself in the mirror and said, “I look like a distinguished gentleman.”

Barbara delighted in describing her precocious great-nephew.  I, too, love the earnestness of children, and I pictured the boy staring at himself in the mirror with his eyes full of pride and his heart filled with dreams. 

I waited for my own appointment dressed in amazement--amazed that there is still a child living in this crazy world today who believes that distinguished gentlemen exist!  I thought the species had become extinct.  I urgently wanted to find the young man to encourage this desire in him and to provide some advice before the world twists his noble ambitions.

If only clothes could make the man, a massive wardrobe change would be in order.  I wanted to warn this sweet child that it is not by the treasure of a man’s closet that he distinguishes himself.  No, a man distinguishes himself by the treasure of his heart.

Just this week more children and school staff were gunned down inside a grade school.  An elected Nashville representative said there is nothing that can be done. A helpless elected official who homeschools his own children and leaves the others to perish does not distinguish himself as leader no matter what he is wearing; he reduces himself to an unwitting accomplice in the next school shooting.  Do these words truly reflect the treasure of this man’s heart?

I cannot bear another helpless round of “thoughts and prayers.”  It is time for examination.  Let us not become a culture extinguished by guns and violence.  Let us be a people distinguished by the good treasure of our hearts.  Let our words and actions reflect the treasures we value.  Surely, our children are among them.
 
           “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil:  for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.”   - Luke 6:45
 
 

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