Today’s passage is Luke 1:57-66. John the Baptist is born and at his circumcision his mother says his name is John, which the relatives disagree with but Zechariah confirms, writing it on a slate. At that moment his voice is restored and he praises God. Everyone in the area hears the story and wonders what kind of man John will be.
How does Elizabeth know what to name her son?
Why does Zechariah write the name after Elizabeth gives it and not before?
Today at school I had to intervene in a heated argument between a teacher and a grade 4 student.
The boy was rude and disrespectful in the extreme and the teacher lost his temper, violently yelling at the child, bringing some of the office staff and me running into the hallway to see what was happening.
The teacher led the student to me, told me the student refused to listen and obey a simple rule, then he left.
He was in the same emotional state as the student, both of them breathing murder.
Everyone looked to me to deal with the situation, to solve the problem.
But how could I? I had no wisdom, just years of experience in which I had repeatedly failed to handle such situations with my own children and my own students.
I could deal with the teacher later but the boy needed help right then.
We sat down at a table, I asked him what had happened and he burst into tears, presenting his case of how it was all the teacher’s fault because he was so unfair.
I let him cry out his tears.
Then I asked him why we had rules.
We discussed it for a while, but he kept coming back to the teacher being unfair and clouding the issue by bringing up other grievances he had.
I finally said that we had rules because we were all selfish and we couldn’t trust each other.
He of course denied that he was selfish. I explained how I was selfish and his classmates were selfish and his teachers were selfish, and we all wanted to have things our own way.
I said that whenever someone said, “That’s not fair!” they were being selfish because what they were really saying was that they didn’t get their own way.
Basically, I gave him a lesson in the Fall of man.
Our conversation went on for a long time.
At last I told him that he probably knew what he had to do.
He knew he had to apologize.
I coached him in what he had to say and warned him that he had to say it sincerely or it was worthless.
I said that a sincere apology would free him from his anger.
I went with him and he apologized sincerely.
I had to interrupt the teacher because the teacher hadn’t had anyone to talk to him, so he launched into his grievances and was well on his way to stirring up the emotional storm again.
Then I took the boy to his class. He was a calm little student, ready to learn.
All of this was possible because of God’s grace and Wooridle training.
Without that training, I had grown up just like that little boy into a teacher like the one yelling at a student he was trying to teach.
Without being able to name the situation and see it for what it is, I couldn’t bring any of God’s balm to the event.
And without God’s intervention, I know exactly what that child would be#8212;self-righteous, angry, blaming, and keeping score in his favor.
He would be just like me.
Application: to talk to the teacher about God’s healing.
Lord, open my mouth, loosen my tongue and let me speak only when I can say your words of love and praise your holy name.
