Re: Our children as the Messiah
[email protected]
In a message dated 09/11/2001 1:50:02 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
[email protected] writes:
There was a monastery located in the outskirts of a town, that had not had
anybody join it in years. Many of the monks had died, and it was down to the
last eight monks, who were responsible for keeping the monastery up. They
were worried about how the monastery was going to function in the future as
they got older. Thus they passed their day worrying, and because they were
worrying they bickered a lot, until the bickering and the worrying just
became normal. And so they passed their days in this state. One day, a
stranger showed up on their door step and announced to them that one of them
was the messiah. The stranger was greeted with derision at first, the monks
thinking this was nonsense. Each monk looked around the table at the seven
other monks, and thought to himself, well it couldn’t be that monk, because
he eats too much, and it couldn’t be that monk, because he does a horrible
job of building, and it couldn’t be that monk because he is too loud. Each
monk then thought, "well maybe its me, maybe I am the messiah. Well I don’t
know, I’m not so good either." Pretty soon though, the monks were looking at
each other a little differently. "Ok, so Sam is loud, he does have a kind
heart." Each of the monks began treating each other as if the other was the
messiah. Pretty soon, the bickering stopped and the worrying stopped, because
each was too concerned with treating the others as the messiah should be
treated. Pretty soon, the word got around that there was this monastery where
the monks treated each other with extraordinary kindness, and people began to
visit. Soon enough people began to join, and the monastery was able to
reinvigorate itself, and the monks were delighted that the monastery was a
place of happiness and peace again.
Kathryn
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[email protected] writes:
> > I read once somewhere (I though it was Polly Berends, but I could neverThis reminds me of a wonderful story I've read/heard in a number of contexts:
> find
> > the quote) that we should treat each child as though he were the Messiah.
> I
> > said that once on a list or in a forum with a lot of Christian
> homeschoolers
> > (it was several years back before there was much separation) and one mom
> > snapped back very defensively "TRUST ME, my kid is NOT the second coming."
> > I felt really bad for her child.
>
>
There was a monastery located in the outskirts of a town, that had not had
anybody join it in years. Many of the monks had died, and it was down to the
last eight monks, who were responsible for keeping the monastery up. They
were worried about how the monastery was going to function in the future as
they got older. Thus they passed their day worrying, and because they were
worrying they bickered a lot, until the bickering and the worrying just
became normal. And so they passed their days in this state. One day, a
stranger showed up on their door step and announced to them that one of them
was the messiah. The stranger was greeted with derision at first, the monks
thinking this was nonsense. Each monk looked around the table at the seven
other monks, and thought to himself, well it couldn’t be that monk, because
he eats too much, and it couldn’t be that monk, because he does a horrible
job of building, and it couldn’t be that monk because he is too loud. Each
monk then thought, "well maybe its me, maybe I am the messiah. Well I don’t
know, I’m not so good either." Pretty soon though, the monks were looking at
each other a little differently. "Ok, so Sam is loud, he does have a kind
heart." Each of the monks began treating each other as if the other was the
messiah. Pretty soon, the bickering stopped and the worrying stopped, because
each was too concerned with treating the others as the messiah should be
treated. Pretty soon, the word got around that there was this monastery where
the monks treated each other with extraordinary kindness, and people began to
visit. Soon enough people began to join, and the monastery was able to
reinvigorate itself, and the monks were delighted that the monastery was a
place of happiness and peace again.
Kathryn
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]