July 30

OT -- 2 Chronicles 26:1-28:27
I did not remember these stories from 2 Kings so I went back and looked. There was a little about Uzziah but nothing about his great build up and the works that he did. Basically, all it did was say who their mothers were, how long they reigned and whether they did good or bad.
I loved the stories. I loved knowing that Uzziah loved the soil and so he had a bunch of folks working his fields and vineyards. I am sorry he became too proud but really, just offering incense gets you leprosy? Seems a little harsh....
Just a few folks that we will want to remember for when we get to Isaiah -- Pekah of Israel and Tiglath-Pileser of Assyria.
Here are links to a great biography of Tiglath-Pileser. He is a very important man in the ancient world and worth knowing a lot about him.

Proverbs 20:11
"Even a child is known by his actions, by whether his conduct is pure and right."
"There's one in every family. Two in mine." Lion King
"It's too bad she isn't like her brother and sister. They are so nice." Mrs. Andrews, my fourth and fifth grade Social Studies teacher.
Bad eggs, black sheep, the rotten potato, the troublemaker.
By whatever name you call it, it is the child who just won't do right. No matter how hard the parents try or in some cases, don't try, the kid just won't fly straight.
The problem with 'bad' children is that they just don't know how far the ramifications of 'bad' will go. You get a 'file'. You get a 'label'.

I speak from experience because I was and sometimes still am that child. By the time I had made it to fifth grade, I was in the principal's office a minimum of once a week. My grades ranged from As in Reading, Science and math to Fs in English, Social Studies and, I hate to admit it, PE. This culminated in November with my taping of the Sex Education class with the intent to sell to the boys and having recess removed for the rest of the year, whipped at school and home, and lunch room duty for the rest of the year. Deidre Fleming tattled on me. I have a special derision for tattletales.
But that punishment actually started to help me get my life together. You see, the lunch ladies loved me. My job was to scrape plates, wipe down tables, help Mr. Lee with the clean up of the cafeteria while my class played outside. Those ladies fussed over me and I responded by really working hard. Even after I moved on up to sixth grade, they still fixed me a special lunch each day -- tomato sandwich on white bread with just a scraping of mayonnaise and applesauce.
And my reading teacher pulled me aside one day. I now realize that Mother must have been called to a conference with all my teachers. Mrs. Glass asked me why was I making an A in her class and an F in Mrs. Andrews'. I hate her, I replied. Mrs. Glass answered, "Do you think I like all my students? I still have to do the best I can regardless of how I feel." I doubt she realized it, but those words changed my life. She did not see me as the bad egg.
And that was it. I seldom made anything less than an A in any class after that. Well, I did get a C in Geometry. But I really tried terribly hard. I just never have gotten geometry. And I don't think I ever got whipped at school again although I did spend quite a bit of time in 7th grade working off demerits for mouthing off at Mrs. Tucker.
I guess I am telling this story because one person can make a difference in the life of a 'bad' child. And you may never know it. May God give you the chance to change a life. And may God bless Mrs. Glass wherever she is now.