Peanut Butter to Keep my Mouth Closed

I am sure that we have all heard it said, “If you don’t have anything good to say, just don’t say anything at all!”  Well, some kids have got this skill down pat. As a teacher, I see so many funny things on a daily basis. I always enlighten my students with this “strange” saying. They never truly understand why, until their feelings are hurt by a “matter of fact” speaking child. (As if it is another language)

One day, we were having snack and a discussion arose among a few students concerning Jesus and death. One student said that she didn’t believe in Jesus, because she didn’t really believe the whole “rose from the dead” story. She said that she did believe in God, though, but “I’m not quite understanding the Jesus thing!” I was rather intrigued by the conversation as I sat at my desk pretending to work on some papers, all the while listening to these little people discussing the perils of life. Another student said, “WHAT?” She said, “Yeah, I think I must be a Jew!” (#blankstare) The other students were trying to be nice, but one of my rather outspoken students told her, “That doesn’t make any sense! How can you believe in God without believing in Jesus?” She said, “Well, I don’t go to church anyway, but I do celebrate Christmas!” My outspoken student, looking rather annoyed and completely unbelieving what he was hearing just stuffed about three to four spoonfuls of peanut butter in his mouth and just looked away sort of shaking his head. Everyone in the group was waiting to see what he would have to say to that. I even stopped pretending to work to hear what he would have to say. And what did he say? Nothing! He said absolutely nothing! The conversation then took a sudden turn in a direction that was not of interest to neither him nor me.

Later that day, when he and I had a moment alone, I asked him why he didn’t say anything to her revelation. He said, “Mrs. Terrell what she said was so stupid! I mean, Mrs. Terrell, common sense tells you that you can’t believe God and not believe in His son! I didn’t want to embarrass her and my mama told me if I didn't have anything good to say, to keep my mouth closed. So, I learned to stick something in my mouth, so I wouldn’t get in trouble. The only thing that I had today was peanut butter and it worked better that anything that I have ever used to make me keep my mouth shut! I nearly got choked, but it worked, so I think I will be using peanut butter from now on to help me to keep my mouth shut!” I was laughing so hard at him I couldn’t breathe!

He doesn’t know what his words said to me that day! He taught me, his teacher, a valuable lesson! If I have nothing good to say, try peanut butter, it’ll keep my mouth closed!