STICKING IT OUT [F, 5-22-20]

“DAILY DEVOTIONAL-Learning to Listen for the Spirit

STICKING IT OUT     [F, 5-22-20]

 I heard about a little boy [or girl, the way most old preacher jokes start] who told his teacher he had a stomach ache. She sent him to see the principal. In a little while, he came back, walking with his head thrown back, sticking his little belly out in front of him as far as he could. [Better if you can see it, so try it yourself in front of the mirror.]

The teacher said, “Why are you walking that way?”

He replied, “The principal said if I could stick it out ‘til recess, he’d take me home.”

Yes, there will be a recess. We don’t know when, but we need to stick it out ‘til then. This is no time for letting down our guard. Stick it out. That’s not only the way we’ll survive, but the way we’ll learn to listen for the Sprit regardless of what the world brings us.

JRMcF

I heard this story from Webb Garrison, a southern gentleman, who told it as, “The principal said… he’d carry me home.” I grew up in a southern culture down in the pocket of Indiana, but I had never heard “carry” used in that way, so I wasn’t sure for some time what the point of the story was. Did it have something to do with carrying a child?

Grandson Joe had a similar experience, in 2^nd grade.  The principal didn’t take him home; they called his mother to do that.

Then she called her mother. “Joe insists that I tell you that he got sick at school and vomited twice, once through his nose.” Joe knew that Grandma was the only person who would provide total sympathy and also understand the horror of that experience.

When Uncle Mike, the last of my father’s brothers, was in 2^nd grade, along about 1918--in the rural, one-room White Oak School, near Oakland City, IN--a boy told a story about throwing up. The teacher thought “throwing up” was a bit vulgar, so said, “Mike, what should he have said?” Uncle Mike replied, “I woulda said puke.”