It’s a common saying that “a bad apple spoils the whole bunch”
At least it was common in lower AL when I was a kid, and is fairly common in East TN, at least in the past 34 years I have been in residence. (The study of linguistics has always both fascinated and completely evaded my mind.)
It is actually true. In overly simple terms (my plant scientists friends please don’t come at me! 😂) If an apple is rotten, or has a bruise it releases a hormone called ethylene. Ethylene is also present in higher amounts if there is cold stress (freezing) or heat stress.
SO. Rottenness is caused (indirectly) by three things. Being close to rotten things, injury to the apple, and unrelenting stress to the apple.
Perhaps because it is apple season, this week the late hours of … say … 9pm when I am the only one left awake and I have time to ponder things, apples make me think about my kids.
How can I, in my responsibility of “raising them up as they should go” keep them away from being rotten before they mature?
1. I have to keep them away from rotten things. So. Rotten music, rotten TV shows, rotten movies, rotten friends… Just anything that has turned away from good and healthy. It has got to GO.
I am not saying that us adults shun people that need help or love. . . But you don’t raise adults. You raise children, and the kidlets is what my mind is on.
2. I have to try to keep them from being bruised up as much as I can. Carefully handled, carefully packed apples don’t tend to bruise as much. I have to be uplifting and encouraging, but also have to “pack them carefully ” by requiring them to meet standards and having boundaries that might at times seem to them as restrictive. I have to try to protect them from mental, emotional and physical harm.
For example Claire’s diabetes has been hard on her both physically and emotionally. She has needed extra grace and encouragement from me. She has needed me to have a lot more patience with her than before she had to deal with this. She needs a little more leeway than her sister, she has more to juggle. I have to give her a couple extra layers of leniency especially when her blood sugar is high or low, or changing quickly. She’s developing the skills and confidence to manage it efficiently herself. I hope as she grows into adulthood she handles herself with enough care to really manage it well.
3. Lastly in my “rotten apple allegory” I need to try to keep them away from extreme stress. Kids can handle stress, and they can handle it well if they have time and security to process it and learn from it. But constant, unrelenting stress (hello social media) causes damage to even the most resilient of us.
Even happy stress is still stress, busy stress really wears on my family . With the beef sales, and the homeschool responsibilities and homeschool co-op, and church activities, farm stress, and keeping up at home, we just have to pick and choose a few activities with friends or we all get overwhelmed and snappy.
That today’s pondering on apples and kids. Thanks for reading.
Between Three Waters 