Family trips. Aren’t they fun? And aren’t you glad that since school is commencing to commence your summer family trips (at least for this year) are over?
My sister and I made family trips torture for our parents. We shared — or rather tried to share — the back seat of the family car. On a trip of any length, conflict soon began. Sometimes I started it. “What are you reading?” “A movie magazine. Leave me alone.” “Who are you reading about?” “A movie star, idiot, now leave me alone.” “Which movie star?” Silence. “Is it a male or a female?” More silence, followed by a glare. “I’ll bet it’s that Troy Donohue. You slobber all over yourself whenever you see his picture.” From the front seat: “Girls, stop it. Don’t say your sister slobbers. That’s not nice.” “You’re right, Mom, but I wouldn’t say it if she didn’t do it.” This time my sister’s glare would have made a junk yard dog quiver in fear.
Sometimes my sister would start the travel wars. “I want that pillow. You weren’t using it were you?” “You know I was, moron. I was sound asleep.” “Yes, and you were drooling at an alarming rate and this is MY pillow.” “So? You were reading your movie magazine and I wanted to take a nap.” “Oh, do brats sleep?” “Give me back that pillow.” “Nope. I am going to have to use this pillow to sleep with tonight.” “So? It will be dry by then.” “It may be dry, but it will still stink like you.” Then I would grab the pillow. She would grab hold of the other side. Now, with the pillow stretched to the ripping point, we would stare each other down. Then with some inner signal, we would drop the pillow and start pushing each other. Slightly aggressive at first, but more painful with each jab. Mom always intervened at this point, allowing for a simultaneous mutual surrender with neither of us losing face. Bloodless victory.
Sibling travel wars. Hmmmm … sounds familiar. We are all on the same journey — to Heaven — yet, we bicker. However, God has set some guidelines for our behavior on our journey.
Hebrews 12:14 says, “Make every effort to live in peace with all men.” In other words, we should do away with our back-seat-war-zone mentality on our journey to eternity. We have to make an effort to live in peace with our brothers and sisters.
We are brothers and sisters on this journey. We need to share more and fight less, encourage more and criticize less, give more and demand less, love more and then love more again. That’s what siblings are supposed to do.
And it makes the journey so much more peaceful.
Verna Davis, speaker and writer, maybe reached at VrdSpeaks@yahoo.com.
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Verna Davis
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The Joy Lady: We should do away with our back-seat-war-zone mentality
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