Today John got into a fight with a grown up. I'm going to refer to this person as Janet.
I'm telling you this because it inspired an interesting conversation.
John says to to me, "Well I'm going to teach Janet how to be nice, because she is being mean!"
I smirked and said, "You know, the best way to teach her is to pray for her that she is nice." And I walked away to change a diaper. John followed me and continued,
"I'm going to teach her a lesson, on how to be nice!"
"You can't it's not your job to teach a grown up how to behave."
"Well, who's job is it?"
"Her parents did the best job they could teaching her how to be nice. It was their job when she was little."
"But who's job is it to teach Janet now?"
"No one's... It's her job... She is supposed to work at becoming a better person all the time. I am too. Grown ups are always supposed to be working at becoming better people..." John was not satisfied and walked away grumbling.
I often think it's my job to teach certain people lessons, without realizing that it's not my place. I really have to remember to let people be and just be meek. I should offer up the hard stuff and pray for them, rather than correcting them. Not to say there isn't a place for fraternal correction, I think I just do it too much.
Constantly I'm trying to figure out how to behave like the Blessed Mother. She was perfect, is Perfect. She is a mother, and she raised a son. Given her son was perfect, but how does a perfect person deal with imperfection? What did she do when she was devalued? Or when someone was rude to her? When children in the neighborhood misbehaved how did she react?
It seems like a leap but this is were John's question brought me.
Especially considering Mary submitted herself to a not-perfect Joseph. Congrats on joining the blogosphere!
ReplyDeleteOh, this is Renee, by the way.
ReplyDeleteThanks Renee. Actually that's what I was thinking. We know St. Joseph was the best mortal husband ever... but he wasn't perfect, so how did Mary deal with that?
ReplyDeleteThe finding the temple, losing a child, who knows better has to be someone's fault doesn't it? Since Jesus and Mary are perfect, then St. Joseph must have made a mistake. Jesus was supposed to be with him, right? I'm not sure if I should be blaming Joseph for anything. I just don't understand how a child could be lost for 3 days and have no one be at fault.
How do you think a perfect person deals with it when her Son goes missing? Maybe because she is perfect she did not asign fault. A huge lesson for me.