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Have you ever played pencil break? There is quite an art to the game. I
tried once. This is the main sport on my school bus. One day a little boy
said, "Mr. Woods would you play pencil break with me?" I said, "Sure. . .
only I don't have a pencil." He assured me he would supply all the pencils we
needed, so we began. Since I had never played before I got the first lick. I
drew back my pencil, cocked it like I had seen other kids on the bus, but just
before I was going to let it smack against his pencil in a sure break, my
pencil broke from to much pressure. This happened two or three more times and
he decided he didn't want to play any more. . . I was breaking all his pencils
because I cocked my pencil too hard. Well, I haven't said anything about the
children playing this game. It kept them entertained and fairly quite. Day
after day I swept up piles of pencils off the bus. Lately however, I noticed
that just a few were playing pencil break and I still had about the same
amount of pencils to sweep up. I watched for several days to make sure it was
the same group playing the game. . . and then Thursday morning as I drove up
to the school I said, "I want Jerod, Jason, Richard, and Nick to stay on the
bus." Immediately one of the boys named began to whimper. I didn't do
anything! I wasn't standing up! The children filed of the bus grinning and
making various comments. After I had closed the door I got to my feet and said, "Fellows I want you to know that I think that you are the best pencil
break players on my bus." You should have seen their chests swell. The smiles
about cut their faces in half. I then went on to say, "Since you are such
good pencil break players, I thought I would give you the opportunity to pick
up all the pencils on my bus this morning." One of the boys said, "Yes, sir.
. . right away sir." They started to scramble up and down the aisles,
checking under seats and carrying their pencils to the trash box. After their
job was complete and I had inspected to make sure they had not missed any. . .
another boy said, "Mr. Woods is this punishment?" I paused a moment, then I
answered, "No, this is accomplishment." "What is accomplishment," they wanted
to know. I said, "That's when you get something done." In the Christian life
we have to keep pushing ahead for Jesus. There is no time for treadmill
walking or backpedaling. We must be persistent and consistent in our lives.
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