A WORD TO THE WISE: Proverbs 27: 22 "Their Grind Isn't Your Grind"

Proverbs 27: 22     Though you grind a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with crushed grain, yet his foolishness will not depart from him.

Proverbs 27: 22.  Nobody’s grind can change you.  You have to get on the grind for yourself.   

As a school administrator, I don’t know how many times I’ve looked a kid straight in the eyes and said, “Do this one more time and you’re gone.  Understand me?”

“Yessir, Mr. Graves.”

Sometimes that’s it.  I never see that student for another disciplinary referral. 

Sometimes though, before the next class period ends the same kid’s in my office for doing exactly---exactly  what I told them not to do.  And the crazy thing is that virtually every time, the kid argues with me that I’m being unfair when I issue precisely the punishment I said I would.”

Sometimes the former conference goes more like, “Do this one more time and you’re gone, but if you do the right thing and maintain good behavior for the next week, I’ll reward you with whatever-whatever-whatever.  In fact, I’ve put the following processes and people in place to help you change your behavior.  Can you handle that?”

“Yessir, Mr. Graves.”

Sometimes the kid receives the help, gets straightened out, and goes on to be successful.

Other times though, even when offered the choice between a reward for good and a punishment for bad, with added interventions to show them how to do well, and influences to lead them in the right direction, some kids still choose to screw up.  And, then they argue that I’m not being fair.

Influence matters.  It really matters.  The weight of positive interventions and influence can be enough to move a child’s/ a person’s life from bad to good.

No amount of help, threats, opportunities, opposition, potential rewards, promised punishments, yelling, pleading, berating, or encouraging can override the final deciding factor:   Free Will.

They, you, and I have to want to do right and to do well.  If I don’t want it, nobody can give it to me. 

They, you, and I have to want to do all the stuff that must be done to achieve the good goals we’ve set. 

It’s wise to surround yourself with successful, positive, godly people; but their positive influence alone isn’t enough.   If I don’t do put in my own work then it doesn’t matter if I have lunch every weekend with the President and the First Lady.  Being around success won’t automatically make anyone successful.  

Their grind won’t change me.  I have to get on the grind for myself.

Changing a person’s life (theirs, mine, or yours) from bad to good/ from good to great involves changing the heart and mentality of the person.   Influences, rules, rewards, & rebuke are simply tools for touching the heart. 

They, You, and I have to come to the place where we want to be different on the inside. 

Until the individual wants change for himself/herself no change is going to happen no matter how much everyone else wants it for them, for you, or for me.

----- Anderson T. Graves II

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is the pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church

Call/ fax: 334-288-0577
Email us at hallmemorialcme1@aol.com
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Mail all contributions to :

Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Rd.,
Montgomery, AL 36116