There's always this one thing I struggle with as a Christian - how some Christians react to less mature Christians, so to speak. I don't think any of us will ever be a 100% mature Christian, we're all just constantly maturing. Even the best pastors of our churches - they're also still maturing along with the rest of us in Christ.
Let's say, for example, this chain cigarette smoker who used to be some pothead and crackhead decides to one day accept God into his life. As an infant Christian, it's going to be extremely difficult for him to stop smoking right away. It's definitely going to take a lot of time and he will definitely need a lot of relational and spiritual help. Yet he still goes to church and is interested in what the pastors have to say. Once he steps outside of the church and goes out into the real world, he still smokes every once in a while, trying his very best to quit and praying to God for help. When he tells non-believers that he's Christian, they smell the scent of fresh cigarettes in his breath, and they shun the fact that he even goes to church. Some less mature category of Christians won't even feel like being around him. "Christians shouldn't smoke", they think - "This man definitely has no place in his heart for God".
Little do many modern Christians remember that there are other Christians with struggles - struggling to forgive, struggling to learn patience, struggling to stop drugs and/or alcohol, struggling to deal with the past, struggling to accept themselves as masterpieces of God, struggling with fears etc... and they all have to bottle up these feelings sometimes - all the while other 'Christians' are constantly criticizing these people of how they don't actually want to follow the will of God. They are still learning. YOU are still learning - and will never learn it all.
A lot of us have seem to forgotten who the actual attendees of church are. We are not haughty, stuck-up, think-we're-perfect-people, we are sinners. There are no 'bad' people and 'good people' - just bad people. We are sinners who want to follow in the footsteps of Jesus because of what he has done for us, and so that should be one of the biggest reasons why genuine, willing-to-mature Christians go to church. Because growth is optional.
If, as a Christian, you do see someone struggling with something, please be kind with your words - those people will feel encouraged and challenged to grow in Christ, rather than have second thoughts of being Christian because of what another 'Christian' said to them. Just because a Christian smokes or uses profanity or is self-centered doesn't always mean that they are less willing to discover God's will for them as you are. What they are doing or being might not necessarily be godly, and nothing is wrong with pointing out with love and encouragement, but remember that you can't fully understand a person only based off of their flaws.
Personally, I run into many admirable Christians - yet I still see the prideful sides of them and get confused when they get so caught up in mundane things or other things like that. Honestly, I used to tell off some of these people of their wrongdoings, and I just get this feeling from them that they think 'Well then, screw being a Christian.' I feel like I might have spiritually led people astray this way and I do regret what I said, but I pray as often as I can that perhaps one day these people may discover that all being a Christian comes down to is reflecting God's love (which sometimes is a struggle itself).
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