Unsound advice

Yesterday someone called me and asked for some advice. It appears that their son had been suspended from school. (I am well qualified on this subject as I was suspended from school routinely while growing up.) It seems that his son had told one of his classmates that he had “rat hair”. When he did the other kid pushed him down to the ground. After the scuffle the other kid got suspended for two days and his son for one.

This person wanted some advice on how best to counsel his son. I told him that his son got what he deserved. I mean if you want to insult someone by telling them that they have hair similar to a rat, then I would expect that he should be ready to accept some consequences. I told him that it seemed an ideal time to train him on the golden rule, treat others as you would have them treat you.

This is not exactly what he wanted to hear. I think he was more concerned that his son allowed the boy to push him to the ground without fighting back. I told him I would not be concerned about that. His kid started it and got what he deserved and he should counsel him that he should be glad it was not worse and his nose was not bloodied too. He should learn at a young age that if you want to go around insulting people then you are going to pay a heavy price.

Now if the shoe were on the other foot and his son had been told that he had rat hair and did not do anything about it, I would have a different opinion, and I am glad that he did not ask my opinion on that scenario as I could not in good conscience give him sound spiritual advice, even though I know what the proper answer would be. I realize the Bible tells us to turn the other cheek, but my flesh tells me not to allow a bully or similar mean-spirited person to go unpunished. If someone told my son he had rat hair, I would hope that he would smack that kid in the mouth or at the very least do as this kid, did and at a minimum push him down and perhaps stomp him a couple of times for falling.

If one analyzes this type of logic, I would think the logical conclusion would be that my advice is rebellious advice stemming from foolish pride. The very first sin was the sin of pride. It literally destroyed the ideal relationship that we had with God and irrevocably destroyed the ideal relationship that satan and one third of all angels had with God. The Bible teaches “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall”. Even knowing this we often allow pride to take us right down that path of doom. I was rebellious practically from the day I was born and foolish pride has led to more than one major problem in my life and yet I still cling to this redneck “smack em in the mouth if they tell you that you have rat’ hair” philosophy. Sigh. Please don’t follow me on this one!

Proverbs 16:20
He who heeds the word wisely
Will find good,
And whoever trusts in the
Lord, happy is he.