I may have mentioned before, I have returned to martial arts after being away from it for over 30 years. I started over again, from a white belt.
Although my class is mostly teenagers and adults, when we test for our next belt everyone tests together. That means there is me, one other adult and about 50 children testing.
Little children.
Last night before my test, I noticed a parent drilling her son on the 10 student commitments. He was struggling to remember a few and you could hear some impatience in her voice as she tried to assist him in remembering.
What I found interesting was, at the end of the test today, our head instructor offered a prize of a bracelet to whatever parent could quote the ten commitments. They are things like, "Always do my best, be humble, be trustworthy," etc.
The same young mother stood up proudly to give it a shot and made mistake after mistake, just as her son did. When she finished we all applauded her, but I could see some of the embarrassment on her face.
Clearly she thought she had this memorized easily and was surprised at her own mistakes.
I hope she could see the rare glimpse into the life of her child in that moment, I hope it makes her realize it wasn't as easy as she thought. Maybe it will make her more encouraging to her son and less critical.
It's one thing to sit on the sidelines and think we know and could do better, it's another to actually try.
Made me think of Jesus' words in Matthew 7
"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye." Matthew 7:1-5 (NIV)
