Millstones and Us

-It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones. [Luke 17:2]

I don't remember much about this event. I remember the setup and the resolution, but I don't remember making the decision or getting to the location of action. Two days ago my family and I were at a restaurant owned by our soon to be family (my brother is marrying their daughter). There was a family that came in and began eating. Occasionally we would hear kind of a scene coming from their table. An older gentleman was yelling at a young girl and sometimes slapping her hands. This was awkward, as it always is to see this kind of thing in public. I am for disciplining children, and feel that even spanking can be a useful tool at times. I also am for parents rights. I feel that parents should be the ones to teach values and discipline to their children.

Here is what I gathered from my observations of the situation. The family had gone out to eat, and as a form of discipline the little girl was not allowed to eat with them. This may seem cruel at first, but I realized that sometimes in our family if a child is disobeydient they may loose a reward such as desert. While the whole family sits around eating our ice cream they are allowed none. I thought that may be what they are doing or some variant. I hate to do this to my children, as I hate having to put my children in a corner. It pains me, but I know that it is better for them than not teaching them. Anyway, I accepted this, then I noticed that they had stuck a piece of pizza in front of this little girl, and the had slaps were for her reaching for the food because she was hungry. Ok, that was a little farther than I would go on the cruelty scale, but still within my toleration. The next thing I noticed was that this girl appeared to be mentally handicapped. Now I was seriously uncomfortable with the situation.

At one point I noticed that some of the children in our group had gotten up. I went outside to check on them, as I passed the window by this family I saw the older man strike this young girl in the face repeatedly. I don't remember how I got from outside to standing behind the man, but somehow I did. I remember thinking to myself, "be calm" then I tapped the man, (who was at the time still striking this girl) on the shoulder and said, "excuse me sir, if you continue to strike that child I will have to call the police." The man came towards me, and I remember noting how old and frail he looked to me. He was yelling something to me angrily, I stood my ground, and hoped I didn't have to hurt this sad form of a man. Then I began worrying for the little girl, and wondering if I had just done the right thing, or if I had made it worse for her. Things blur a bit at this time in my memory, and the next thing I remember is most of the people in the restaurant standing there informing this man and his family that what he was doing was abuse and that discipline is not what he was teaching, but fear.

That's pretty much it from my point of view. The family left with some screaming and some foul language. I heard later that license numbers were written down and police were called. I hope that was enough to save the child from her situation. I don't know what else to say. I felt uncomfortable when people told me they were proud of me, but I think it felt good to them to say it. I think what I did was a good thing (I'm not sure good will come of it) and it's good to reinforce those good things that people do, but it still feels weird to be thanked for doing something like that.

I pray she's alright tonight.