Want to Learn a Great Way to Avoid Spiders on Twitter?

Many years ago, I had a few of my kids memorize the following poem as part of our homeschool speech class. We have fondly quoted parts of it over the years when teaching moments would come up, and the lesson has stuck with all of us. Enter another teaching moment––a reminder––but this time for me...

The minute a well-known evangelical pastor with a history of belittling, patronizing and demeaning women tweeted at me with a seemingly benign question, I thought of this poem. I also thought of Scripture such as the one about casting pearls (Matthew 7:6), and the one about answering a fool not according to his folly (Proverbs 26:4-5). And as a friend told me recently, "When you wrestle with a pig in the mud, the only one that really likes it is the pig." Haha, yup. I know better than to be drawn in. Just not worth it. I "blocked" the spider and am moving on.

So, in an effort to remind myself to avoid the temptation to engage in something useless and unprofitable, I'm sharing this life lesson with you. Maybe, just maybe, it will help you avoid meaningless and fruitless debates that bring no glory to the God we love.

(ps............ try reading the poem out loud in a British accent. Somehow it's more entertaining.)

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The Spider And The Fly

By Mary Howitt