Choose To Be Righteous

Oh, that hurts! Yes ,the Lord says that no one is righteous, not one. Yet we are righteous through Christ. As believers we can make righteous choices. I know without the Lord I am selfish, and my thoughts are not always towards good, nice deeds and actions. Lets take today for instance. My girls were both up at 8:00. That is good. They went in the bath, we ate breakfast together and we set on our way to go outside and spend the morning in the backyard. I set up the table outside with crafts, play dough and paint. I even brought my Bible study, hoping to squeeze in a few moments while the girls were busy painting. As soon as we got settled a very load truck sounded off right outside our backyard walls. The truck literally made the back yard shake with its volume. Then whenever he stopped the guys working yelled out profanity's in jest towards each other. This didn't stop. It continued and became louder. My first thought was to at least go talk with the guys about their mouths as my girls could here every word. Then the Lord gave me some other options. I say the Lord because the options came into my mind in that peaceful, soft whisper. Not words but just a flow of better ideas that seemed to come from His spirit instead of my selfish, sinful ways. Now I don't think it is wrong to confront someone in love who is acting obnoxious; they probably would have said sorry and stopped but I just felt their was another choice to make. Peace comes only from Christ as well. I know by now that what I plan can and will change at any moment. So, first I prayed for the loud guys. I prayed for their hearts, their worlds, their problems. The girls new I was praying for them. I then said "even though this is giving us a head ache; We can be thankful that they are fixing our street. We can be thankful that they chose to work on our street and we are glad for them that they have a job." I made a choice. The choice was...1) Talk with them and correct them for their behavior like a mom scolding her children."
2nd choice Offer them a glass of water, a kind word and pray that somehow the Lord would show them His mercy, grace and kindness and that by me choosing righteousness and being the hands and feet of Christ they might know kindness in this world and possibly give Jesus the credit and their hearts someday!
By the way, the profanity stopped right after we prayed!!