He Hit Me First

Who May ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive blessings from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. Psalm 24: 3-5 NJKV

I remember driving in my car with my two sons in the back seat. It could be a beautiful day and we could be going somewhere fun and then out of nowhere I would hear, "Owwww...mom he hit me." then the other one would yell, "he had it coming cause he hit me first!" That was it. Nice time over now. This one particular day I had just had enough of this. This behavior was seemingly becoming a habit. A bad habit. When I looked back at them there seemed to be delight in the eyes of the one that got hit. And I watched him as he balled up his little fist and drove it into his brothers chest. There were no seat belt laws back then so two kids fighting could really get in some good shots! I yelled , "ENOUGH" and pulled over to the side of the road and turned the car off. Panic and fear crept into those little faces as I turned around. I almost laughed but I really had to put an end to this ritual that took place every time we got into the car.

I told the boys that I was in charge. I was the mom. And as mom it was my job to settle any arguments. They were not to hit each other anymore. "Well he hit me first so I slugged him!" They both started swinging at each other again. Well, being the good old days then, and you did not have to worry about going to jail for spanking your child in public, I calmly opened my door, got out, went around the car, opened the back door, pulled them each out and gave them a firm smack on their behinds as I lifted them out of the car. Of course they both collapsed on the ground as if I had hit them over the head with a two by four. Now they were both crying. I explained again that I wasn't going to have anymore of this behavior. "But why did you hit me when he hit me first?" my little guy sobbed. I told him that when his brother hit him, his brother was wrong. I told him that if he had told me that his brother was hitting him, then I would have tended to his brother and he would not be crying now. I explained that two wrongs did not make a right. I told them that it hurt me when either one of them hit the other because they were both my children and I loved them both equally. So when one of them hit the other, they were hurting someone I loved and I would have to punish the one that hit the other. I promised them that if they would come to me when either of them had hurt the other I would determine what the punishment would be and promised that I would always stand up for the one hurt if they stayed blameless. That did not mean that one could drive the other nuts until they reacted by punching the others lights out!
In that case I would have to do something so terrible that it was too awful to talk about. Both their mouths dropped open. HA! I had left them speechless at last. From that point on they saw that coming to me was much easier on them both because they knew I loved them and they trusted me.

But how many of us still act like children? Because of this childish behavior gangs have formed. We have road rage. Anger management classes are springing up all over the country. And domestic violence abounds. How very sad. We all have a heavenly Father. When someone transgresses on us we can turn to Him. All we have to do is to turn the other cheek and walk away from any volatile situation. Just turn the matter over to God. If we are right with Him, He will take care of the situation. We may or may not see the results of his punishment when someone comes against His chosen. And do not think that as Christians we can turn on one another and not be dealt with by our Father. 2 Thes 1:8. God knows every heart and every mind. Keep your way straight and upright before God to the best of your ability and you will have an advocate in the Father. Then you will never have to use the excuse before man or God that "He hit me first!".....Patti