McCallister's and Some HS Drama

So last night after Lindsay and I had spent some time shopping in the Florence Mall we stopped at McCallisters because she had not eaten dinner. We sat outside because it was cooled down and nice outside. While sitting there, the place was busy with what seemed to be the characters from Laguna Beach. There was a group of three girls sitting right next to our table and another large group a little further away. One of the girls at the table made a phone call to what appeared to be another one of the girl's boyfriends or interested boys, that can only be summed up in the word drama. It ended in an obvious hang up from the party on the other side, which infuriated this girl, for reasons beyond me because she deserved to be hung up on. After some time of these girls discussing God knows what, the group got larger when some boys came along and joined them, which only added to the exciting drama of high schoolers hanging out during their summer break. The one question that I thought of after this experience was, "Was I like that when I was in high school?"

I told Lindsay that I don't remember being involved in the drama that was high school, but maybe I was. I have fond memories of high school and being around that last night only annoyed me. Maybe I was too inclusive to be involved in the stupidity of certain things that go on during high school, or maybe my memory has faded and I have forgotten the drama that went on. Either way, I may be avoiding high school hang outs for the rest of the summer.

Guilty by Association

So I have tattoos, 4 or 5 depending on how you look at it to. The first one that I got is the word live in Greek on my left shoulder blade. I got this one because it was the theme at a Christ In Youth summer week that I went to that ultimately lead me on the path that I am on. I really felt God tugging at my heart to follow him in the direction of Bible School and then full time missions. The second and third, are the initials of my Grandma and my Father on my chest. My Grandma was one of the most influential people in my life and I am grateful for her ability to put her kids and grandkids before herself pretty much all of the time. My mom, my brother, and I lived with her for a time when I was younger because there weren't a whole lot of options for us. She passed away when I was a Senior in high school. My father, who was never really a father figure, passed away when I was a Freshman in college. I only had about 8 months to catch up on lost time with him before he passed, but I thank God for that time because it brought a lot of closure to some difficult memories growing up. The lack of him in my life also produced the father figure that I beleive God meant for myself and my broher to have, Mark my step father and then adopted Father. The most recent, also the largest and most visible without my shirt ont, has brought me to have a few discussions with my mother about tattoos. On the inside of my right arm it reads, "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for" and on he insdie part of my left arm (both in the bicep area) "and certain of what we do not see."

That was a long preface to the point of this post. I've been thinking a lot about how society and how people view tattoos. And something that comes up in my thought here, is how it is perceived from people within the church. I keep thinking that if I were to show up to a church that knew me and had a high opinion of me, would that change if I were to show them my tattoos. Would they see me in a different light? So I'd like to just ask a few questions to see what people think. Here are some of the thoughts that are running through my head. Does a person's opinion of the person that I am or anyone else change if they know that someone have tattoos? Is it justifiable to look down or negatively upon someone just because they have tattoos? Are tattoos wrong? and why?