I learned a lesson at the expense of someone’s face. Great lessons are learned when you are a kid. It just takes adulthood to remind you of the lessons you learn. When I was in sixth grade I was sitting in the back of the classroom with a friend of mine name Chris. I think the back row is where they put all the really smart people, at least that’s what I like to tell myself. Our teacher was up there in front of the class explaining stuff you learn in sixth grade. Algebra, trigonometry, something to that effect. It was probaly more like “see spot run”. Chris and I were not interested in what ever she was saying but more interested in spitting spit wads in the back of Trish’s hair. I was a child of the big hair movement and Trisha was a trendsetter. We were having so much fun because Trisha could not feel all the spit wads that we had managed to get in her big hair. Everyone that was behind her was having a hard time listening to our teacher. We had managed to spit the constellations in the back of her head without her even knowing it. It was getting very comical when all of a sudden our teacher quit talking. You know what that means, we are caught! Our teacher’s face became very red, vains popped out of her neck and it actually looked like steam was coming out her ears. As our teacher was staring us down, she asked us what we were doing. I told her we were making a chart of the stars. By this time Trish noticed all the spit wads in her hair, which only made matters worse. I knew life as I had known it was over. I knew what was about to take place. See, when I was a kid, you did not get a time out. There was no such thing as detention they only knew one thing and that was the big paddle. The principal of the school was not there to run the school; his job was to beat kids. The bigger and meaner the principal the better behaved the school. I was about to get it and get it three times. One from the teacher, one from the principal and one from my dad when I got home. The teacher looked at Chris and I and told us to get out in the hall. As the class sat there in silence except for Trisha who was crying and making things worse, we got up from our chairs and made our way to the classroom door. On our way to the door, our teacher jumps up from her desk storms over to the door, she grabs the door knob, and in a fit of what I thought to be rage, she flings the door open as hard as she could, I guess to make a point. She did! At the same time she flung the door open at 90 mph., there happened to be this poor kid running down the hall at 80mph. The sound of those to elements meeting at the same moment in time was incredible. This guys face creamed into the back of the door stopping him dead in his tracks. He fell backwards and was knocked out cold. I know you are thinking that is awful, but to a 12 year old kid it had to be one of the funniest things I had ever seen. While our teacher is trying to wake this guy up, Chris and I are doing our best not to laugh up a lung. Have you ever been in one of those situations where you want to laugh, but are not supposed to? That is exactly where we found ourselves. The pressure on my vocal cords was so bad that sweat is running down my face and I am trying to think of every bad thing that has ever happened to me.What made everything worse was that our entire classroom is trying to figure out what that loud noise was. As soon as a trickle of sound came out of Chris’s nostril I lost it. We could not stop laughing. After the kid finally woke up, we were headed toward what I remember as the worst paddling of my childhood. The lesson that was learned that day would not be realized for years to come. The only thing I remember learning that day was to pay attention to my teacher and not laugh so hard. As I grew older there is something there that is so true. Everything you do, and everything you say not only affects you but other people as well. My attitude and my mischievous actions affected my teacher’s attitude. She was ticked off! Her attitude and anger affected some poor innocents kids face! The way we act, and the way we talk gets to people. Everybody has been in a situation were you were in a good mood and then someone did something to change it or even the other way around. People affect other people. You and I have heard for years things like, “you catch more fly’s with honey than vinegar”, “What goes around comes around”, “You reap what you sow”…etc. These saying all come from God’s principals. I have learned that most people will be nice to you if you are nice to them. I have also learned that my actions not only affect me but the people I am around. I also have learned that God put certain people in our lives to point us toward Him. Their actions and words get to us. Are these people perfect? Of course not, but the part they play in our lives are so important. I thank God for the people like my youth pastor and others who allowed God to use their actions and words to affect me.
Keep Fishing,
Mark Roberts
