2424) While reading Proverbs 29:4 this morning, it made me reflect on justice. The verse reads, by justice a king builds up the land, but he who exacts gifts tears it down.

Justice, it seems to me, can be tricky because sometimes it doesn’t look the way I envision it to be.

What I see in my head is a courtroom with someone standing up front who has wronged me. When a judge acknowledges the “wrong” someone has done against me and then gives them, in my opinion, a lighter sentence, or no sentence at all, is this justice?

It’s hard for me to get my head around this, but when I’m standing on the other side of justice, as a leader, I see it differently.

In my classroom, each child is different. They have different needs, weaknesses, and families and justice is shaped around the circumstances of all these things. So, when I dispense justice, it can be hard for other kids to buy into it.

Proverbs admonishes those in authority to deal justly with those in their kingdom, and when they do, it’s helpful to remember that justice can be a hard swallow.