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The
disciples approached Jesus and said,“Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven?” He called a child over, placed it in their midst, and said, “Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children,
you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven."
Recently, an acquaintance described me as a teeter totter: "Jennifer, you are such a teeter totter always up and down. One day is good and then the next bad!" If this was supposed to be a joke, it was not funny. I fumed inside thinking: "How dare this person describe me as some stupid playground toy! What the !@#$? If I'm a teeter totter, so is everybody else. We all have our good and bad days. We're human! Geese-Louise!"
I stewed and I brewed over those pin-pricking little words, now forever branded into my brain. Let's see.... I can add this to the list of statements made by a host of some lovelies of the male persuasion. One boyfriend said I was "highly intelligent but lacked common sense." Another guy in college shouted out "You're Psycho!" every time he saw me. (This was to make fun of the fact Hitchcock's Psycho is one of my all-time favorite classics. He was just a mean bully.) The absolute worse thing a man ever said to me came straight out of the foul mouth co-worker at my former job. When he found out I was (briefly) engaged he laughed saying: "Who would want to marry, YOU? Ha!" I guess being called a teeter totter is a compliment versus the implication that no man wants to ever marry me...Yikes!
I have to swallow my pride and accept the teeter totter assessment. Yes, the person hit the nail on the head: I'm moody. I want things to be perfect demanding a lot from myself. I have high expectations of others. I feel like sometimes I throw temper tantrums like a toddler.
Jesus wants us to be more childlike in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but this means being kind to others, humble, and meek. We shouldn't be quick to criticize or jump to the wrong conclusions. It's our duty to see everybody as a child of God no matter if we like them or not. They can slander, curse, and defame us all they want. However, a good Christian takes the verbal assaults with humility knowing all too well that Christ is on her side.
I think we all live a life on a teeter totter for the most part. When things are going well, the teeter is up. When things are going badly, the teeter is down. The worst part is when the big heavy elephant sits on the other end of the totter. We're stuck too high to reach the ground. We feel trapped, helpless, and anxious. We want somebody to get us off that teeter totter and off now! We're sick of the childish games. We want answers and we demand action! We feel like we're so stuck in a life of endless misery and heartache. That elephant in the room won't budge!
This is when Christ comes to the rescue. We pray to him. We study his teachings. We make an effort to emulate him. We look for ways to better serve others so all that extra weight on the totter is lifted. We want to balance the totter parallel to the ground. Maybe we need to fatten ourselves up with joy, fortitude, strength, wisdom, understanding, and fear of the Lord in order to bring ourselves into spiritual balance.
Life is moody and unpredictable. It goes up and down like the teeter totter. It's up to us to make an effort to not swing up too high or too low when it comes to our faith. Always remember that in good and bad times God is there to nurture us. Keep the faith and do not be afraid! Aim for spiritual balance, feasting on the fruits of the holy spirit with a humble and contrite heart.
-J.
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