Don't Call it an Ugly Egg

When we arrived home Sunday after church, Hannah headed to Timmy's incubator

and gasped,

"Oh, look at that ugly egg!"

And don't we too often make the same mistake when we see something we were not expecting

or do not understand.

"Oh, what an ugly egg!" we say, when we do not realize it is just a tiny, wet chick

just hatched!

We do not realize we are putting down something that needs nurturing and gentle handling.

Maybe it is a child's hope, or a young adult's dream, or an older person's anxieties, or a middle-aged person's motivations.

And all we see is an ugly egg.

Ugly eggs that remind us of--

Bugs in the tree.

Zap them with neem oil spray!

Squish them with gloved hands!

It's true there are some things that need zapped and squished and nipped in the bud. 

And in these days of permissiveness there is far too little of nipping wrong behavior in the bud

before it becomes a habit. 

I spent a couple hours yesterday spraying the thousands of bugs sucking away at our poor austree.

And when I was afraid the spray wasn't working well enough, I squished bugs with my gloved hands

all up and down the branches.

My gloves, my pink sweater, and myself looked a sight when I was done.

My love for the one and only leafy austree on our property overcame my hatred of bugs.

 Bugs were in my hair and on my clothes and had fallen down inside my clothes, too.

But I loved that tree enough to spend two hours spraying and spraying 

and squashing and squashing bugs.

I used two tablespoons of a neem oil concentrate which I made into a gallon of spray.

This is especially for roses, but the garden center clerk thought it should work for my tree, too.

And my love for my children will give me the courage to go after the bugs--the little bad habits.

If we want the tree to grow healthy and strong,

and if we want our children to grow healthy and strong,

we better conquer the bugs.

And so yes, there are those times you go after the ugly bad bugs,

and all the dust bunnies on your dresser.

But be gentle with the weak and the small,

the handicapped and the hesitant,

and the newly hatched chick on the block.

Allow them to be who they are instead of calling them an ugly egg. 

Instead of calling them "strange" just because they are different than you are

and just because you don't understand them.

Give them space to grow.

And allow them to grow.

When Danny asked if he could help the next chick that was pecking its way out,

we told him no.

It's necessary for new chicks to peck their own way into the world.

If you "help" them, it stunts them. 

It is necessary for chicks to get strong by having to peck their own way out.

You don't pull the shell away 

and pick away the film.

I don't know exactly what it is, but you don't help a chick out of its shell 

anymore than you open a rosebud before it opens by itself.

If you want a strong person,

you have to stop rescuing them from the efforts they need to make on their own.

They will not grow as straight or as tall or as strong if you constantly save them 

from consequences of their own actions,

or do every little thing for them

instead of teaching them to do for themselves what they will need to do

when you are gone. 

So be gentle with the new chicks,

and the ugly ducklings.

Allow them to be who they are and let them grow.

A swan may surprise you someday!