Just Say So

I have just enjoyed the experience of speaking up for something that I really believe in.

Sometimes when people make jokes about my Christian faith or about Jesus when they know that I am a Christian, I just laugh it off or try to think of something snappy to prove that I am not some uptight, boring, and conservative religious girl. Sometimes my response is just me smiling and shrugging my shoulders and not saying anything. However, as of late, I have come to the point where I have had enough. So I said so. And the person understood for the first time that things like that are offensive to me, and apologized. I know he meant it when he said that he wouldn't say anything like that again. In my head, I thought, "Hello! How could you not know that saying things like that are TOTALLY inappropriate when you know that I am a Christian!!" I still think that, but I also realized that if you don't act like it bothers you, then some people just don't know that it bothers you. Obviously there is difference between people who just don't like the idea of God so it comes out in some conversation and someone who makes it personal by cracking jokes about you...but if someone makes comments directed at me just because they know that's what I believe and they are looking for a reaction, I am going to ask them to stop. Maybe this is a given for most people, but it wasn't for me. Now it is.