Lashing Out

This is the week in the semester when students who have not regularly attended forfeit their final financial aid check.

The financial aid office contacted me and asked me to verify attendance for three students. I went through my records to be certain that what I was reporting was accurate information.

Sure enough, I heard from all three individuals after they traveled to the Business Office and found that there was no financial aid check waiting.


One was VERY angry with me. She said that I was to blame because I hadn't answered her email in a timely manner. She originally wrote to me on 3/25. I answered on 3/26. I pointed this out. Yet, she kept repeating "but you didn't answer me."

Galatians 4:16
“Have I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?” ~KJV Ad.


Another student was actually quite apologetic. He shared that he had been incarcerated over the last two months and he sent me the link to the newspaper article that told the story of his crime. Oh dear! Too much information! I didn't read the story.

The same day a student in Texas lashed out at his fellow students, stabbing and seriously wounding several people at his community college.

It made me wonder why some people choose to lash out, instead of taking personal responsbility for their choices. Similarly, I wondered how we can help our children and our students to learn to forumlate paths out of seemingly "desperate" situations.

Leviticus 19:17-18 “You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.” (ESV)