Tiny Devotional for Monday, 08-21-2023

 A great good morning to all my friends and neighbors in Internet Land! And to family members who have dropped by, I don’t feel like making lunch.


When the scoffer is punished, the naive becomes wise;
But when the wise is instructed, he receives knowledge.
Proverbs 21:11, NASB

Here’s one way of understanding this: 

You’ve got three people in your work group: Smoochy Scoffer, Ned Naive, and Wilbur Wise. How are you going to get them to accomplish the task?

  • Smoochy makes fun of your accent, and whines ‘I don’t get it.’
  • Ned laughs, and giggles at everything Smoochy does.
  • Wilbur just rolls his eyes.

Now, from the top down: 

  • Wilbur is going to get it, no matter what you do. 
  • Ned could go either way. Right now, though, he’s waiting to see what happens. 
  • Smoochy has his heart set on causing chaos, in the hope that you’ll just go away.

Do NOT make the mistake of trying to befriend Smoochy by laughing at his jokes, in the hope you will win him over. You aren’t there to make friends; you have a task to accomplish. Smoochy is keeping that from happening.

It is questionable whether you can get any good results out of Smoochy, but you DO have an obligation to get Ned on the right road. 

NOTE: You can’t actually kill Smoochy; you can’t even hit him. However, if you solve the problem FAST, then you might not get so mad that you want to go medieval on him, anyway. But you need to act before Smoochy gets under your skin. 

It’s POSSIBLE, that if you are strict, but fair, that Smoochy will get in line. That’s all you can hope for.

And Ned is saved from becoming a scoffer.

Peace be on your household.

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