Don't Swat!

Two seemingly unrelated stories became the testimony I shared from the pulpit today. I don't do it very often but a kid with a funny looking face asked me "Why don't you [meaning me] ever go up there?".... so I got up.

Yesterday while Mommy was in town school shopping Zachery and I were harvesting a little honey from the bees. We had finished up working on the hive and neither of us had gear on anymore and there was a a few of "the girls" (a nick name for the bees) still making some air-traffic around us. This is not uncommon and so when one landed on Zachery's several times he was nervous. Like on so many occasions previously I had to strongly reminded him of the 1st rule in bee handling...Don't swat...I brushed one bee carefully away barehanded and she took flight. Only moments later I found out she once more touch down on his face...Zachery reacted without thinking (as most of us do in that kind of situation) and had the swollen nose to prove it in the morning.

His disregarding my "commandment" cause a bit of pain.

Later yesterday night I was in my own world getting tangled in the inter-web doing some serious "recliner research". There was a bunch of little girls (actual little girls this time) buzzing around the living room and moments later the laptop was ripped from my lap and Millie and the poor PC tumbled to the ground as a power cord tripwire casualties. Daddy reacted instantaneously without thinking. A ferocious Daddy monster arose from the chair and the next few minutes will be remembered by 5 crying children, one of which peed on the carpet out of fear (yeah that didn't help much). A bit of venom was injected and a painful evening had to be experienced for a while...

Strangely enough when Daddy originally sat down with the intent of preparing a lesson for Sunday about controlling ones tongue and temper. It was not until later that lesson was returned to and the irony of the situation revealed it's self at how it is so much easier to say "don't swat" or "don't react that way" then to actually do it in the moment that it is required.