The Dirty Tie

The Dirty Tie

One of the Zone Leaders wore a dirty tie to Zone Meeting.  I told him it looked dirty and inappropriate.  He told me I would understand why he wore it later.  During his lesson he asked me what I thought about his tie and I said it was dirty.  He asked another sister and she said it looked like it needed to be cleaned.  He then proceeded to tell us about the tie

He had been a football player before coming on a mission.  Whenever they played a game away from home, they were required to wear a tie.  The coach had given each of them a tie and this missionary had worn that same tie to every away game.  When he came on his mission, it was the only tie he had.  He wore it everyday in the MTC and it was the only tie he had to bring  to Italy. 

The tie was special to him.  A beloved coach had given it to him and he had worn it faithfully to every  game.  It had gotten dirty over time, but he was required to wear a tie, and that was the only tie he had.  He was demonstrating obedience by wearing it.

Needless to say, I felt bad for judging him wrongly and so did a lot of others.  Sometimes we see things that appear dirty and we prejudge them without knowing all the facts.  We don’t understand the circumstances behind what we see.  Instead of being judgmental, we should find out the reason and see if we can help. 

In this case I could have volunteered to clean the tie or buy a new one.  Our investigators should be special to us and we shouldn’t judge them because of their perceived flaws.  As missionaries, we should key in on the fact that they are all children of  God.  We should help them improve their lives and teach them about the gospel of Jesus Christ.