American Idol

Crystal and I are faithful viewers of American Idol each week. I think I've even voted once or twice. I have to admit that I love watching the early audition episodes. But anyway, now we're down to the top 20 this week and 4 more people are going home. And Thursday nights are pretty intense as you watch the reactions to the contestants and their family members when they hear they're going home. And the funny thing is the contestant is asked to sing their song after hearing the tough news that they've just lost. It's really a tough thing.

Well, last night was no exception. We said goodbye to four more people but the most memorable would be Alaina. After hearing her name she turned her back to the camera and starting crying. She even said something about this being so embarrassing. She even cried out that she couldn't sing her song.

Now, the point of this post is not to point out how great it was to see her reaction to the whole thing or to make fun of her in any way. I'm writing this post to talk about how great Ryan Seacrest the host handled the situation. He's asked to be up there with the contestant and talk with them about their experience. Well he's thrown up there with this young girl who isn't taking the news very well. So he reminded her of how great it was that she has made it this far, that she still is a great singer and should be proud of how she's handled it so far.

I've heard a lot of jokes about Ryan and how he hosts the show but I have to say that I was impressed with how he handled himself last night. Crystal and I think he does a great job being put in a lot of tough situations.

And it showed last night that he does care about other people.

As a Christ-Follower I could learn from how Ryan handled the situation last night. How important it is for me to build people up with words of life rather than tear them down with words of death. Now I don't know Ryan personally or how he acts off camera but in that moment I learned a lot about how to treat other people.