Proverbs 26: 16 The lazy man is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can answer sensibly.
" Home address?"
Mother looked at daughter. Daughter looked at mother. Both burst out laughing.
Not, “I have a disability so I shouldn’t have to work.”
But, “You work so I don’t have to.”
She thought it was clever. I thought it was the saddest thing I’d ever heard, because I recognized the look on her daughter’s face. It was the look of a student who’d just heard something from her teacher---- something she would remember and apply for the rest of her life.
This mom turned her child into a human being who sees all other human beings not as people but as targets for exploitation.
In comic books villains are created when someone makes a deliberate decision to do evil things because it is evil. In real life the formula for creating bad people is simpler---- and scarier.
Proverbs 26: 16. As an educator and a pastor I’ve sat down with family’s dealing with suicide, divorce, foreclosure, and homelessness. I’ve had parent conference in which I had to keep the kid from jumping on his mama or pull the dad off his kid. I’ve been in the middle of ever kind of dysfunction & family tragedy you can imagine.
Of all those, the saddest sit-down I ever had was with a mother and her daughter whom I was “sending off” to a disciplinary program. The mother didn’t contest anything in her daughter’s thick, thiiiick discipline folder, which surprised me because this lady’d cussed me out on several previous occasions. The child didn’t complain that she was innocent or being singled out, which also surprised me because she usually lied to me at least twice a day. Frankly, the whole conference was proceeding with remarkable cordiality.
As we were closing, I asked the mother to verify her contact information.
"Cell number?"
She gave it to me."Work number?"
Pause.Mother looked at daughter. Daughter looked at mother. Both burst out laughing.
Mom: Work? Man, I don’t work. You work so I don’t have to.
Not, “My husband works so I don’t have to.”
Not, “My parents worked so I didn’t have to.”Not, “I have a disability so I shouldn’t have to work.”
People become monsters when they simply decide, “I am going to have everything I want, and I’m not going to work for any of it.”
----- Anderson T. Graves II
Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is the pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church
Call/ fax: 334-288-0577
If you want to be a blessing to this ministry, contributions may be made by check or money order made out to: Hall Memorial CME Church
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Rd.,
Montgomery, AL 36116
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