Judge Judy

After my husband and I moved to Shreveport and the dust settled, in the afternoon we got into the habit of watching Judge Judy.  My sweetheart loves Judge Judy.  I think he loves her because she makes sure nobody gets away with doing the wrong thing without it costing something.  When so many people are doing the wrong thing and seemingly getting away with it, it’s nice to know Judge Judy will call some wrong doing into account.

The other day my husband remarked that Judge Judy certainly earned her paycheck on that show trying to get to the bottom of all these messes.  It got me thinking.  How much do they pay Judge Judy?  Amazing what can be found on the internet.  I found that they pay Judge Judy $47 million a year and that Judge Judy agrees to work 52 days per year and they film about 260 episodes in that 52 days.  Not bad for a part time job. Even her baliff Byrd makes a million a year.   I mean, I could do Byrd’s job.  With all this revelation you must be thinking that Judge Judy must be brillant. After all, for someone to pay Judge Judy that much money for that little work, her brain must be twice the size of a normal person’s.  It makes me think she must be close to genius.  The Chief Justice for the Supreme Court earns $223,500 per year – that’s not even half a days work for Judge Judy.

We were recently watching Judge Judy when the case before her involved a young high school student that needed tutoring.  Because he did not pass the test for which he was tutored, his mom felt she should not have to pay his tutor.  After Judge Judy told the mom she absolutely had to pay the tutor,  Judge Judy called for the young student to stand.  She began to tell him about herself when she was in school.  Judge Judy admitted she failed chemistry and her private tutor for chemistry was the teacher himself.  She further revealed she barely passed Algebra.  She said her mind didn’t work the way that a math minded person’s brain did.  She was good at law.

I began to think of a little story I once read about a frog, squirel and duck that went to school together.  The frog utterly failed swimming.  He made a “C” in climbing class, but he was outstanding at hopping.  The squirel also failed swimming. He was okay at hopping, but he exceled in climbing.  The duck was an absolute overachiever in swim class, but he wasn’t all that good at hopping, and he altogether failed climbing.

I’m sure you’re smart enough to begin to apply this little parable to yourself.  After all it’s easy to say “Math just isn’t my thing.” It’s a lot more challenging to apply it to our children. We want so desperately for them to excel in everything.  My son hated writing.  Hate is s a strong word.  I’m not using the word flippantly.  Here it is an entirely appropriate word.  One year during our adventures in homeschooling, I told him he had write for five minutes.  It didn’t matter what he wrote about.  The only thing he had to do was to keep his pencil moving for five minutes.  It was almost too much for him.  It was a good day if I could get him to perform for three minutes.   I began to internalize what would happen if he didn’t write.  I had decided the world would almost come to a stop over it.  That was about fifteen years ago.  He seems fine now.  Mamas let me encourage you. God has gifted your child with special gifts, talents and abilities.   They are unique to your child.  She won’t be naturally gifted at everything.  Some things will be a struggle.  You may have a real writer on your hands – me, not so much. Encourage your child to follow Jesus and she will fully bloom.  He will see to it.

Philippians 1:6 – “And I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”