“Wednesday Was A Bad Day” | A Guest Reflection From J Nelson
Throughout history there have been many bad days. January 6, 2021 was one of those bad days. A question we can often find ourselves asking after bad days is, “What now?” For me, it was the usual early morning routine– make sure the kids are dressed, “did you brush your teeth”, check to make sure you have your mask (a new part of our routine) and hop in the car for the 5-minute commute to school. On the way, read the Jesus Calling devotional for the day and (hopefully), even better if we can do all of this before 7:40am when the carpool line really clogs up. In many ways it was normal, but today was not normal.
As we got in the car I told the kids that we were going to pause the devotional for the day so we could talk. After convincing them they had not done anything wrong (yes, sometimes even devotionals get paused when there is a need for behavior "modification") I did my best to explain to them what happened Wednesday. I found myself trying to find synonyms for “protest.” My youngest didn’t know what that word meant, while the other two wanted to know if I knew anyone who worked in the capitol (which I do and she’s okay – also she is brave and awesome, but that’s a story for another day) and most importantly if anyone was hurt. While I will not try to claim I knew everything to say and I am certain I missed more than a few important points, I did try my best to make two things clear.
First, protest is okay, but violent protest is not okay and it’s more than okay to say violent protesting is wrong. To be clear, what happened Wednesday at the capitol was not okay and they needed to hear me say that.
Second, as believers in Jesus, who trust in the power of the Holy Spirit, our first response is to pray. Right there in the carpool line, we did just that, we prayed and I’m confident the prayers of an 11, 8, and 7-year-old “availeth much.”
Please don’t hear this as a lesson on HOW to talk to your kids about Wednesday. The last thing you need is a lesson from me on how to talk to your kids - I'm figuring it out the same as you. I hope you see this as my encouragement FOR YOU to talk to your kids. Wednesday was bad and there are certain to be more bad days ahead. Let’s engage our kids with those topics. Ask them what they think and how they feel. Who knows, maybe if we talk about it a bit more they will be more equipped to handle the next bad day and maybe they will be the good we so desperately need on those bad days.
