Take the Bite

Last week we were at my mom's on Monday night for FHE.  I had brought the following story and thought that it would be fun for my mom to act it out.  She LOVES to work outside and has plenty of props for the story AND she is always good to ham it up.  I really wanted my kids to hear this story and wanted them to remember it.  I knew that if they had the visual image of Grandma acting this out, they wouldn't forget it.
Here is the story that I narrated as mom performed-

People will tell you that if you leave wasps alone, they will leave you alone.  Those people have never spent much time in a garden.  I have been stung countless times when I was just minding my own business.  The wasp sting teaches an important life lesson.

One day while working in my garden, a wasp landed on my shoulder.  When I tried to brush him aside, I flicked him onto my neck where he promptly stung me.  I'd been stung before but this was one sting too many.  Angry, I went to the shed and I grabbed a can of spray and a fly swatter.  I covered my face with cheesecloth and put on a hat to cover my head.  I pulled on a thick, long-sleeved shirt and snatched a pair of gloves.  I was headed to the garden for a war.  My mission was to eliminate any wasp that buzzed within fifty yards of my garden.

Two hours later, the potatoes were still full of weeds that hadn't been hoed, the water hadn't been turned on, and I hadn't thinned the carrots.  It didn't matter, I was going to kill all the wasps God ever created.  I had killed dozens of them.  The problem was that they never seemed to go away.  I'm sure I looked ridiculous waving and swatting and spraying and jumping around.  It took me half a day to realize how crazy I was being.  There would always be more wasps than I could kill.

Life is the same.  There will be times when you are minding your own business, hurting no one.  Then someone will come along and sting you.  You have two choices.  One is to get angry and waste days of your life swatting away; if you do you will find that you've accomplished nothing.  The better path is to protect yourself the best you can and enjoy your garden.  When you do get stung, it will hurt, you may cry and wonder what you did to deserve this.  Let it end there, take a deep breath, place a dab of mud on the sting, wipe your tears, and put a smile back on your face.  Turn back to your garden and enjoy it.  Take the Bite and Move ON!

We ended the evening talking about "taking the Bite and moving on"  I feel like so many times we consume ourselves, being upset about something that we can't change.  It could be a test score, an encounter with someone, a loss at a game, a negative comment ... it goes on and on in this life.  I am notorious for analyzing things and thinking way too much about them, instead of taking the bite and moving on.

I love being able to say to my kids "Take the Bite and Move On" and know that they understand what that means.  I don't want them to spend all their time swatting, when in the end it does no good.

Thanks for being such a great actress mom!!!