I walked out of work tonight only to be whacked with a snowball that was going, oh, I'd guess about 76.3 mph. Where? IN THE EYE! A kid who lives across the street was messing around, throwing snowballs at the kids in our program as they walked out the door. He wasn't intentionally aiming for me, but I guess I had perfectly bad timing and walked out at the exact moment he released the snowball. You should've heard the gasp from our kids! It's funny now that I look back on it, but I'll admit, at the time, it hurt quite a bit, and I was definitely mad. However, I chose to simply walk to the bus and help corrall all the kids on. The response to this incident was very endearing. One of our highschoolers walked over to me with the snowball perpetrator in his grasp and demanded that he apologize. He did, and I accepted. What was even better was as I got on the bus, the kids were all talking about it, asking if I was okay, and telling me how they couldn't believe I didn't go pummel the kid. One boy even told me he'd take care of it for me tomorrow, and a girl told me she'd cry with me if I wanted to cry :)
It was a great teaching moment also. We've been trying to combat in our kids the whole mentality of "you hit me and I'll hit you back", which only serves to escalate a situation. Someone has to decide to be the "bigger person" and just walk away and let it go. I was able to apply that to my situation, and I hope it at least made one kid think.
Now let's just hope I won't wake up tomorrow with a black eye :)
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4 comments:
This is a perfect example to the kids that redemptive violence is futile. Great work! If you were not grounded in the Spirit yesterday you mihgt have strangled the kid. So maybe I should say great work to God who has given you the strength to work with youngsters. Your actions showed God's kingdom on earth. By the way, wasn't it me that said we should dismiss in the back?(nobody listens to me)
well, we have been, up until we got 14" of snow...but, have no fear, now that it's mostly melted, we'll begin dismissing from the back again. oh, and i got your text this morning, andrea...thanks for fixing it! :)
p.s. without sounding too much like your mom, i was really proud of the way you handled that whole situation. you exuded forgiveness and grace, and it was more than apparent to all those around. mad props to you, friend!
Andrea, I'm so glad that you finally got a blog! I always loved getting your emails, but this way I can peek into your life more often! =)
Why does God use such painful experiences to teach lessons? :)
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