Courtesy In The Story Little Things Are Big By Jesus Colon

My grandmother taught me that “there is no excuse for bad manners,” and I have taken this little piece of wisdom with me throughout life. People in today's world seem to have thrown away manners and have forgotten that common decency, basic kindness, concern, respect and courtesy can not only open doors of opportunity, it literally defines their character. Ethics and morality is not just about big things – it's about the small things: the details of life. Morris calls this the “conditions under which people can be their best and do their best” (Morris p. 122). Treating people with

" This helped to highlight the fact that although his mother went through a hard time, she was still able to find peace through God, and the fact that Jesus had gone through a torture like that of her son. (Cone, 65-66) (Cone,

Pastor David took an interesting approach to preaching this particular passage in which Jesus' feet are washed by the sinful woman who cleans his feet and anoints them with perfume to the ire of Simon the Pharisee. Jesus uses this as an opportunity to use a parable to teach about grace and its availability to everyone. After reading the passage he began to break down the different perspectives of the characters in the story as if analyzing a play. He examined the perspective of the woman, Simon, Jesus and the others at the dinner.

By using passages from the Bible, the story provided a connection between God’s words and what an individual should do when life is full of conflicts. For example, Mary went through depression when her six year old daughter died because of a wound and didn’t know what to do. When she was offered a Bible, she happily opened it and “lightens on Psalm 27… [which said] ‘Wait on the Lord, Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine Hearth, wait I say on the Lord’” (Rowlandson, pg 8).

She tries to convince him that he is actually a good man. She then turns it around telling the misfit that he should pray. He takes this as an excuse for his behaviors stating maybe if he had known the truth about Jesus he wouldn’t have done the things he did. The grandmother then states “Why you’re one of my babies. Your one of my own children!” (529} and reached out and touched him. This could be seen as good after all of the things he had just done. Or it could be seen as yet another manipulation to save her own life.

My grandmother taught me that “there is no excuse for bad manners,” and I have taken this little piece of wisdom with me throughout life. People in today's world seem to have thrown away manners and have forgotten that common decency, basic kindness, concern, respect and courtesy can not only open doors of opportunity, it literally defines their

The Grandmother was a very talkative character and even as she meets the Misfit she tries to talk her way out of their predicament. The Grandmother speaks of Jesus many times in her conversation with the Misfit. The Grandmother used Jesus to try to help the Misfit understand why he did the things he did. For the Grandmother Jesus was a way to deflect and cope with the situation that was occurring. She referred to praying multiple times and told the Misfit that if he prays Jesus would help him.

However as the grandmother continues to talk to the Misfit, they began to discuss the character of Jesus and his actions, she experiences something of an epiphany as she reaches out to the Misfit. When death had come closer to her, she did not believe in God

1. Jesus disciples found the young ass because the follow Jesus instructions to the letter. 2. Whenever the body of Christ does anything in the name of Jesus all the glory goes to

By physically seeing Jesus, it gave her an even stronger conformation that the experiences were valid and not from her imagination. The beauty was too indescribable not to be genuine. When she was questioned, she defended herself by saying,

But, being that they saw no one other than her, they thought she had lost her mind. What they did not see was that Jesus was leading one of his soldiers home and she was talking to him.

The song “The Little Girl” by John Michael Montgomery is about an innocent little girl and her malevolent parents. The parents didn’t believe in God, so they had a misalignment with him. The parents drank and did drugs. They were malevolent to the little girl with mental abuse and lack of love. The father commits a malevolent act when he kills the mother and himself. The girl gets taken to a new family that is in an alignment with God. When the family takes her to church, she sees a picture of Jesus. She says “He was there in my old house and held me close to his side as I hid there behind our couch the night that my parents died”. Jesus protected the little girl the night of the murder.

In our book groups we discussed two essays “The Connection Between Strangers” by Miles Goodwin and the essay “The People Who Love You When No One Else Would” by Cecile Gilmer. In my group we said that “no matter how big or small your act of kindness is, it could change someones life” was demonstrated in both essays. In the first essay, “The Connection Between Strangers”, shows this because this little girl walked up to this solider and congratulated him. Little did she know, that the small action had changed the soldier’s life, as he said in the essay, “That girl undoubtedly has no memory of what happened years ago… It doesn't matter why she gave me the magazine. The important thing is she did” (Goodwin 83).

Jesus was able to teach the woman that He is the Living Water. Like Nicodemus, she was confused at first and asked how he would be able to give her water when he had nothing to draw it out of the well with. Jesus explained to her that what he would give to her would be water that whosoever drink of it, would never thirst and would spring them up to everlasting life. When she realized the Jesus is the Messiah, she was able to discern that

The Gospel of Luke thoroughly illustrates the themes of mercy and compassion in his use of literary devices such as symbols, stories and parables. Luke urges how significant it is to feel and deliver the ready willingness to help anyone in need in our society. The Gospel offers a model to live out these virtues through Jesus’ actions and his parables.