The Fly or the Spider?

Today the boys learned that God charged us to care for the world and all the animals.  Clark found a little spider on our porch and decided to help her by finding her food.  We hunted and hunted and found a big fat juicy fly.  I caught it.  Clark carefully placed it into the web for an evening meal for our eight legged friend.  Clark was so thrilled that he has helped out God's little creature.

Then Joel walks up and begins panicking that the fly is in harm's away.  He begins to wail and beg us to rescue the fly from the dangerous web. He takes matters into his own hands and destroys the web and probably kills the little spider in the process to save the fly.

The boys are both upset and disturbed.

As I stand back and look at the emotional mayhem, I begin to see.  I explain to them that they are both right because each boy is taking care of God's creatures.  How often in life will they face the same dilemma of fighting against another over equally worthy causes.  Oh how often, Michael and I have gone round and round, but we both were in the right or at least sort of.

This is our little buddy that builds her nest in front of our window.  We watch it catch all kinds of bugs all day long!!

So the next time I find myself tied up in a conflict, I need to remember to take a step back and try to see the other's perspective. Chances are we are both right, or we both have strong points that are worthy of respect and consideration.