Morning, all! I wrote yesterday about forgiving myself, and taking responsibility. It ended up being a good day, looking back. I didn’t end up doing Prac (my Librarian friend was ill, and told me to not come in) so I got stuff done at home, and cleared my head a little bit – which was awesome!!! An incident last night involving the rooster and one chicken left me hot under the collar, and I must admit, I didn’t deal with this as well as I should have. Especially when I could hear the kids screaming at each other back up at the house while I was busy in the chicken pen! Not particularly proud of yelling at the kids when I (finally) returned. Not proud at all. But I cleared it up with them again, when I’d calmed down, and they know that I make mistakes, so all was forgiven – but still, I needed to step back and think before I spoke. I needed to ‘show respect’ as my default position. Which it wasn’t. It was all about how the situation was affecting me, and I wanted everyone else to know about it!
Kind of like what happened in 1 Samuel Chapter 6, that I just read. In the last chapter, the Philistines had been plagued (literally) by troubles ever since capturing the Ark of the Covenant from the Israelite tribes. In this chapter, we see them say “enough is enough” and send it back. I guess they learned their lesson, because instead of just ‘giving it back’, they consulted their religious leaders and asked how they should do it properly – I guess what had been happening to them meant that they had grown a huge amount of respect for the Ark and the God of the Israelites, and they didn’t want further calamities!
So they did what they were told. Sent the Ark back on a cart, pulled by two cows that had never had calves or been yoked previously, with offerings of gold in the shape of rats and tumours – which they’d been plagued with since capturing the Ark. So the cows pulled the Ark right back into Israelite territory, and the people to whom it came, rejoiced and offered sacrifices to God.
But then the same thing happened. The Israelites were overconfident. Overstepped their mark. Blasé about it all – and disrespectful of the Ark. So unfortunately, they also had to be taught a similar lesson. They suffered loss, too. And again, they asked for the Ark to be sent away form their town.
I guess respect is a pretty big thing. We need to not get ‘too big for our own boots’, and show politeness to others rather than believing, and showing others, that we are better than them by the way that we treat them with disrespect. Something that I think I kinda need to work on! Today marks the first day of my teaching week. I’ll have Year 1’s and 2’s today. The classes that I find most challenging, due to my impatient nature. So today’s a good day to work on that ‘showing respect’ idea!
See you tomorrow, dear reader, and I’ll let you know how it goes. Have an awesome day yourself!
— Ceridwyn