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<\/a>Most of the time the chickens got along well with each other, yet we still knew which one was the boss and it wasn’tg always the rooster.\u00a0 One day we noticed that the hens had singled out one of the smaller hens and began to peck at her.\u00a0 No matter what we did, we couldn’t get them to stop.<\/p>\nApparently, they saw her as weak and undesirable so they choose to eliminate her.\u00a0 By the time we return from church the next day, she was dead.\u00a0 They had pecked her to the point that her insides were literally falling out.\u00a0 I wanted to shoot the whole bunch of bullies.\u00a0 Then I was reminded that they were only doing what was normal for chickens.\u00a0 Chickens are\u00a0 not very bright, so I’m sure they had not plotted to destroy this poor little hen.\u00a0 It’s just part of their life cycle,\u00a0 like it or not.<\/p>\n
When it comes to Christians, however, we should know better.\u00a0 How many times do we see someone “pecking away” at the self worth of a brother?\u00a0 Or challenging the integrity of a sister?\u00a0 God did not give\u00a0 us the right to judge our fellow believers.\u00a0 He never called us to purposely hurt one another.\u00a0 In fact Jesus taught us quite the opposite.<\/p>\n
In Galatians\u00a06:1 it says,”Brethren, if any man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.”\u00a0\u00a0 Restore in meekness doesn’t sound like pecking to me.<\/p>\n
Paul goes on\u00a0to say in verse 2 that we are to bear one another’s burdens and so fulfil the law of Christ.\u00a0 Jesus wants us to encourage and support each other.\u00a0 If a person is actually living in sin, there is a proper way to deal with that, in love and meekness.\u00a0 But, if we just don’t think they did the right thing, or made the right decision about an issue, we have no right to “peck at them”.\u00a0 We don’t have the right to judge them.<\/p>\n
We are to help them with their burden, not add to it.\u00a0 We are to show compassion.\u00a0 We are to speak word of love and comfort.\u00a0 That’s what Jesus does for us and He is our great example.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We used to live on a forty acre farm that my husband was born and raised on.\u00a0 During the time we decided to raise some chickens so we could have fresh eggs.\u00a0 We usually bought about 10 chicks, because we wouldn’t know if we had hens or roosters until they started to grow.\u00a0 It was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":420,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[5,21],"class_list":["post-557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inspiration","tag-compassion","tag-nature"],"yoast_head":"\n
Pecking Order - Small Town America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2011\/10\/pecking-order.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pecking Order - Small Town America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We used to live on a forty acre farm that my husband was born and raised on.\u00a0 During the time we decided to raise some chickens so we could have fresh eggs.\u00a0 We usually bought about 10 chicks, because we wouldn’t know if we had hens or roosters until they started to grow.\u00a0 It was…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2011\/10\/pecking-order.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Small Town America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-10-04T23:10:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-10-04T14:11:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/smalltownamerica\/files\/2011\/10\/IMG_0349-272x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"dhanny\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Pecking Order - 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<\/a>Most of the time the chickens got along well with each other, yet we still knew which one was the boss and it wasn’tg always the rooster.\u00a0 One day we noticed that the hens had singled out one of the smaller hens and began to peck at her.\u00a0 No matter what we did, we couldn’t get them to stop.<\/p>\n