Inspiration

We were at the church yesterday waiting for the parents of all the scouts to come collect them so Aaron and I could go home. It was just two boys left, Aaron and his antithesis, the boy who teases and torments him and calls him a sissy. After few minutes of awkward conversation because the other boy really doesn't like Aaron or me his mother arrived. I handed him his bag of dirty clothes from the caving trip. To my surprise Aaron helped him with his pack and sleeping bag. I was very impressed. Aaron had no reason at all to be nice to this boy but he didn't let himself be controlled by the other boy’s bad acts. Aaron acted on his own nature and did the good, decent thing.
As we go home I was reading my wife's blog and she had posted a video that Aaron had shown her about forgiveness and repentance. The band was Linkin Park. It's a great song and the message was very strong. Normally I don't car for videos because I like to let the imagery of the music come straight from the music. In this case the emotional impact of the images in concert with the music was overwhelming. I promptly thanked Aaron for showing me the video and again today showing me the wisdom that a young man can have at just barely 13.
A few months ago I was involved in an online chat about a bishop who made a comment from the pulpit like, ”There are families in this Ward who don't have enough food to eat and I want to know that the hell you're going to do about it." In this situation more people were upset about the fact that the Bishop had said, "hell" than they were about the fact that there were families without any food.
In this situation criticizing somebody’s choice of words is the easier way out. It doesn't require any real action. And most importantly it doesn't require anybody to set aside any prejudices. They can simply respond on autopilot. Cussing is bad; therefore if somebody cusses to make a point then their point must be irrelevant. I'm not defending the cussing but merely pointing out how we should really focus on the more important issue and not the emotive flourishes used to explain it.
Later on in the evening I made an attempt to point out the two examples of Aaron's wisdom that I'd experienced earlier. No sooner than I had brought up the subject of the Linkin Park video the conversation deteriorated and was focused solely on the bad language used in some of their other songs. Never mind the profound message in the song I was referring to that did not have any cuss words. It was simply easier to criticize modern music than to open your mind a little bit and see that forgiveness, redemption and repentance can be taught in more than one way. Realizing that I couldn't hope to get the conversation back, I simply put my arm around Aaron and thanked him for showing me the video.
I'm continually amazed at the wisdom of my children. As I grow older I hope that I will not be so set in my ways that I forget to look for and accept these alternate sources of wisdom.