Crème de la crème

Crème de la crème

More often than not we know what we want in life…the best! We crave the best that can ever be.  We know the kind of hotels to go to, the kind of places to go shopping, the car to drive, the kind of house we can live in-and the kind we can never fall asleep in! among other standards. Well it’s good to have standards, especially if you can manage to keep up…

However, the shocking standards that I have realized we have are the kind that we have set for other people to pass our test!  We know the qualities of friends that we’d want to have; generous, caring, independent, loving, trustworthy…we know kind of husband or girlfriend that we want; honest, respectful, loving, spiritual and all those amazing qualities- the physical appearance notwithstanding. We want people of strong morals and integrity around our lives.

The challenge with this is that we have set the bar so high that hardly anyone seems to meet our standard ‘requirements’! The truth is that we clearly know that we don’t meet at least half of the standards we set for others to meet-Not even half!

A joke is told of a successful stock broker who was in a relationship with a successful young actress. The well-liked stock broker wanted to take their relationship to the next level, but he said that due to his status in society he could not marry just any one. So he decided to test the lady’s character before he got married to her.

He went and contracted a private investigation firm to investigate the actress and give him a full report on her and mostly her character. He instructed the manager that his identity should not be disclosed to the investigators on the ground and only he should know he is the client.

After weeks of investigation, the firm summed up the investigation, prepared a report, sealed it as the client ordered and delivered it to the now much exited stock broker. He was exited that finally he got a full report on the character of his future wife. He happily opened the report: it was short, it read…”the actress is of pure and impeccable character and has a promising future...but of late she has been seen in the company of a stock broker of questionable character!

Think of it, even as Christians we have set very high standards and we’ve adopted a judgmental attitude on who is a sinner and who’s not; we block friendships with people all because they miss a point on our score-card! 

We need to start looking inward at ourselves. As you spell out the terms and conditions we have to meet to gain access to you evaluate yourself on the same score-card you use on others!