You.

Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. James one verse 19 do you like Hallmark Channel movies? My wife and I do, especially the Christmas movies. We watch as many as possible and try to record those we can't watch right away. Among the reasons we enjoy these made for tv movies is that they are typically feel good movies with no offensive language, no illicit sex, and no political agendas. Yes, they are clearly predictable, and yes, some will argue, not completely inaccurately, that if you've seen one Hallmark movie, you've seen them all because the plot is basically the same in every one of them. But I'd much rather watch these movies despite the criticism, rather than the vulgar, immoral trash that pretends to be good art on tv these days. One feature that my wife and I laugh about every time we watch a movie is the conflict and resolution that occurs in all of the Hallmark movies. The conflict is usually hinted at rather early in the movie, but isn't made completely clear until there are only ten minutes left in the story. Resolution is swift, and all the loose ends are quickly tied up in the few minutes that are left. The big conflict in the majority of the movies comes when one of the lead characters sees or hears something that is misinterpreted to be something it's not. A girl's exboyfriend arrives on the scene, for example, and proposes to her out of the blue in front of her new love interest, who assumes the girl is saying yes. He then leaves the scene, which usually means leaving town, but the assumption he has made is anything but the truth. And the young lady then has to make a mad dash to the airport to catch her new love so that she can explain the truth before he jets off to go back to New York City or LA. It's always the assumption, the jumping to conclusions without having all the facts, that nearly derails the love story. This is true in real life as well as in the movies, though. In fact, all of us are guilty of jumping to conclusions at times without having all of the facts and information needed to draw the right conclusions. Now, James wasn't critiquing movies or even talking about jumping to conclusions per se, but the principle in his advice clearly applies. We should be quick to listen and slow to speak or get angry, because until we know all of the facts, we may very well be jumping to wrong conclusions by making assumptions that are far from the truth.

This has been your thought for the day with Steve Burkham, pastor of Community Christian Church in Stockton, California. If you have questions or comments for Pastor Steve, please send them to [email protected] have a great day, and we hope you'll join us tomorrow as Pastor Steve opens God's word to bring us another thought for the day.