Picking up the Gaunlet

by Kelly Knowlden

Having a son that was interested in making chain mail items makes words like hauberk, coif, and gauntlet all make sense. The gauntlet is a “mailed glove to protect wrists and hands from wounds.” The phrase in the title become clear when the terms are understood.

As parents, one of the most difficult things to do day-by-day is to remain fixed on the end goal of education. We get stuck on “getting good grades,” or perhaps “just getting work done.” As adults, we forget about the important things of having students that are doing their best, desiring what is good and right and molding their characters to be humble servants of Christ. So we badger, plead, accuse and then decry their faults. Our concern for them is often not expressed as love, but as manipulation. Their interpretation of even our best efforts is many times misunderstood. We end up having relationships that distance, rather than ones that bridge gaps.

A new year is a good time to “pick up the gauntlet.” My vulnerable hands need a mailed glove to do battle against the wrong ends of education. So I cannot desire kids to “just get it done,” without seeing their need to “persevere without excuses” as the central issue. I cannot make “getting a good job” be the main goal of their schooling, but rather I must help them discern what gifts and abilities God has built into them and help them use those in service to others. I cannot convey any sense of disappointment in low grades, but rather see those as opportunities to ask questions that will hone their self-assessment of effort, motive and desire.

Thankfully we have One who has “picked up the gauntlet.” His hands healed and touched the broken. They raised the dead. His hands blessed fish and bread and fed thousands. And when the time came, his hands were pierced through with nails to provide me with not only a gauntlet, but all armor to fight battles “against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” You will find courage to battle well by meditating on the One who will fight for us as we look to Him.