Raucuous jerks

One day while deer hunting I learned an interesting lesson about anger management that I shall never forget. It was such a beautiful day that I really didn’t seem to care whether I saw a deer or not. I was sitting on my deer stand enjoying the warm morning sun and observing the various wildlife in close proximity to me. I was greatly amused by a squirrel that was perched on a limb in the same tree in which I was sitting. He was eating a white oak acorn and a blue jay was loudly berating and scolding him from a perch a mere inch or two above his head. The squirrel seemed oblivious to the blue jay screaming at him and calmly munched away with his jaw moving ninety miles an hour as he enjoyed his meal.

I wondered at the squirrel’s unmindful disregard of this nuisance and his incredible patience in totally ignoring it. I smiled as I began thinking that if I were that squirrel, I would reach up and grab that chattering raucous pest by its throat and before he ever knew what hit him, I would rip him to pieces. I would begin by wringing his neck and twisting his head off. No, even better, I would bite it off and then spit it out with blood running down both corners of my mouth like Ozzie Ozbourne did to that dove. I would then calmly go back to enjoying my breakfast, but only now I would enjoy some peace and quiet. That blue jay wouldn’t be bugging anyone else who was sitting there minding his own business trying to enjoy a nice leisurely acorn breakfast I tell you.

As I continued to watch I again thought about the little squirrel calmly sitting there eating his acorn, completely oblivious to and ignoring the blue jay that was screaming away at him at the top of his lungs merely inches above his head. The squirrel was unruffled and unfazed by its antics, and simply disregarded the entire commotion and merely continued to calmly sit there enjoying its meal and the beautiful morning. The blue jay, who had tried its utmost to torment the squirrel, could not stand being ignored, and when it could not stir up the trouble that it desired, soon grew tired of it and flew away to try to find someone else to bother.

I thought about those in life that love to torment me and others, and I considered that if I were to ignore them, they too would soon tire of it, fly away, and leave me to my peace and quiet. If I confront them, there will be chaos and problems and I will enjoy no peace. (How can anyone enjoy peace with blood running down their mouth?) By ignoring its tormentor, the little squirrel enjoyed its peace and serenity. Now that is how God intends us to be. That is the “glory” that He talks about in Proverbs, “Peace and Serenity”, is God’s GLORY!

God wants us to enjoy this life and live in harmonious peace and serenity, but in order to achieve it we need to ignore raucous obnoxious jerks. We all encounter them, but how we react is what is most important


Proverbs 19:11
The discretion of a man makes
him slow to anger
And his glory is to overlook a
transgression.