raised hands

She bent over in her very frequent chore of setting a cup and saucer of black turkish coffee on the table before her father in law. His eyesight is continually failing him and so when she holds out her hand to receive his( for the custom of touching her chin and forehead to it as a sign of service and respect) he often misses the gesture completely and she drops her hand back to her side as she walks back to her post at the stove.
But this time, on her return trip she was surprised by the sharp pain that met the back of her skull. The weapon, an apple. The assailant, he father in law.

The apple bounced off of her head onto two more heads of the grandchildren sitting on the floor. all three were stunned and baffled at the unexpected attack.

He had picked up the apple with what seemed an idle threat to throw it at his wife. I tried to take it from his up-turned palm but he clenched it tightly and jerked it up to his shoulder opposite me. There is no determining what ruffled his feathers or why he chose Nebat as his target but even if there was a cause and even if that cause had been somehow by the hand or mouth of Nebat - I am having a very hard time reconciling why a man who claims to be a follower of Jesus and the recipient of His great love would lash out in such a way.

This is not the first, or even close to the most violent instance of his anger manifest - but I guess it was the most dramatic I have witnessed firsthand.

Violence and physical abuse is a very common occurrence, in fact, in that home. baby Betty gets slapped in the face repeatedly with little warning. There is the constant raised hand with or without an object occupying it... it is a very natural response to any and every circumstance.

O LORD - liberate them from their habits. from their patterns of abuse. from their lack of self control. from their tempers (that do not bring about the righteous life that God requires.
TRANSFORM THEM!!!