At the beginning of a New Year, a high school principal decided to post his teachers’ New Year’s resolutions on the bulletin board.
As the teachers gathered around the bulletin board, a great commotion started. One of the teachers was complaining. “Why weren’t my resolutions posted?” She was throwing such a temper tantrum that the principal hurried back to his office to see if he had overlooked her resolutions.
Sure enough, he had mislaid them on his desk. As he read her resolutions he was astounded. This teacher’s first resolution was not to let little things upset her in the New Year.
When I’m really honest with myself, I find that I’m very much like that teacher. I tell myself, I even make a resolution, that I’m not going to let little things upset me. Then someone starts talking about a political figure I strongly disagree with and I get upset and speak my mind. I tell myself that it’s okay because these are not “little things.”
I have to admit that the people I admire the most are those who can stay above the fray. Jesus was one of them. When his disciples were arguing about who was the greatest, he put a little child in their midst. When confronted with paying the tax, he called for a coin and asked whose face was on it?
“You are most powerful when you are most silent. People never expect silence. People expect words, motion, defense, offense, back and forth. People expect you to leap into the fray. They are ready, fists up, words leaping from their mouths. But silence? NO.” (Alison McGhee)
Are you going to be any different in 2021 in talking about politics and political figures? People who stay above the fray listen, stay silent, contribute and keep their cool. Above the fray people help others to move forward with their lives.
WAKE UP EACH MORNING IN 2021 WITH THE THOUGHT THAT SOMETHING WONDERFUL IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN…..GOD DOES!
