Dry Morsels and quiet!

 

Enjoying a tea party

"Better is a dry morsel with quiet than a house full of feasting with strife."

Proverbs 17:1

Grandchildren are such wonderful examples of humanity.  They represent so many things that we as big kids do and think and say, yet they are less devious in their actions (for the most part.)  I know, they are little liars, but just not as experienced in their construction and much more transparent.  I didn't intend to start out so negative.  I have to say that I love my little humans, all 13 of them, with great love and admiration.  They are the most beautiful, the most talented, the most unique, the most intelligent.....................you get the picture. And one of them isn't even born yet!  But I feel assured that he will be the same.

Back to the little specimens of humanity.  Some days I see them in a state of near perfection.  Okay, that's a slight exaggeration.  But for all practical purposes they seem that way.  They sit in their playhouse and pretend with paper dolls that they are beautiful ladies and gents with perfect manners.  They have tea parties with a "dry morsel" of bread and water, using the best of etiquette.  I hear them laughing and singing and playing together in perfect unity.  Oh, how wonderful to have grandchildren!  What perfect parents my children must be to bring up such fine examples of the much-desired exemplary children.  What a fine job we did in training our children so that they in turn could train their children well!  I think I deserve a much-needed pat on the back.  A fine example of Psalm 133:1:  "Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity." 

Other days I see those little buggers sitting at the table, a beautiful table that their mother has devotedly prepared, arguing over where they are going to sit, who they don't want to sit by, complaining about the food, fighting with the one they finally did end up sitting by, tattling on the one who has gotten up and hidden under the table so that he doesn't have to eat the "yukky" food, screaming as she is being dragged off to her room for a much needed time of discipline, making faces at the one across the table, and on, and on, and on....and on!  That wonderful meal that mom so fastidiously prepared has suddenly become less than a feast.  Oh, for a dry morsel and quiet!  Who are the parents of these rotten children?  Who raised those parents to bring up such little beasts?

We are all just big kids.  We have the same potential  to live quiet lives of peaceful existence and to enjoy one another or to provoke strife and discord.  "What causes quarrels and fights among you?  Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?  You desire and do not have, so you murder.  You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel."  James 4:1-2

The answer to our dilemma lies in the fact that we are slow to heed the call of Jesus to "love our neighbor as ourselves." (Luke 12:31)  What a world this would be if we could grasp that command of our Lord!

Children, big and small, let's choose a dry morsel with quiet over a feast with strife.  (A feast with quiet would be good now and then, too!)

Praying for a peaceful day,

Gloria

I have joined Linda at Prairie Flower Farm 
Building our Homes Together
http://prairieflowerfarm.blogspot.com/