A Recipe For Being Ugly

Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, 

but with humility of mind let each of you

regard one another as more important than himself; 

do not merely look out for your own personal interests, 

but also for the interests of others

(Philippians 2:3-4)

A friend who grew up in the South refers to bad behavior as being or acting ugly. Perhaps you, too, use that terminology or have heard it used.  Certainly it is descriptive of how we all act at times, how such behavior makes us feel, and how we look to others.

Sometimes it doesn’t take much provocation to get us into an ugly mood, and once we are there, we have difficulty shaking it off.  It hangs over our heads like a black cloud, and taints everything we think, say and do.

Most of us don’t really need instructions on how to be ugly; it just comes naturally.  However, the following recipe may serve as a checklist to help us recognize, and even guard against ugly behavior:

 RECIPE FOR BEING UGLY

Measure out generous portions of distrust.

Mix thoroughly with gossip and innuendos.

Stir in subtle amounts of jealousy and envy.

Blend with anger, resentment and revenge.

Measure all actions and opinions by your own.

Cut off others by completing their sentences.

Knead their weak and hurting places.

Extract all evidences of listening and caring.

Apply a thick coating of self-centeredness.

Grate on others’ nerves by talking incessantly.

Squeeze out all the attention & compliments you can.

Sprinkle each conversation with I, Me, My.

Simmer over a slow-burning fire of  unforgiveness.

Maintain a steady diet of acting, looking and feeling ugly.

God’s Word gives us a recipe of an entirely different sort.    Applying these ingredients to our attitudes and actions will go far toward eliminating the uglies from our lives:

                                          Love suffers long and is kind; Love does not envy;                                           Love does not parade itself; Is not arrogant;

Does not behave rudely; Does not seek its own;

Is not easily provoked; Keeps no account of evil;

 Does not rejoice in iniquity, But rejoices in the truth;

Bears all things; Hopes all things;

Endures all things. Love never fails

 (1 Corinthians 13:4-8)

                                                          Lord, it’s easy to be ugly
                                                          as we go about each day.
                                                          So teach us to be pretty,
                                                           in all we do and say.