Article June 21, 1999 Issue

Provoked by your children?

"Whoever or whatever provokes us, we can be stirred not to anger but to love."

By Judith Haugan Ryan

This Bible verse stunned me when I heard it: "Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works" (Heb. 10:24).

Provoked to what?

I had always associated "provoked" with negative response, and this usage challenged every notion I had about the word. In fact, one dictionary defines the word as "to incite to anger." It "most often applies to an angry or vexed reaction." "Provoked to love" sounds almost incongruous. But this verse moved me to look beyond these initial definitions, and I found more: "to stir up or move profoundly; to rouse out of lethargy or indifference; to beneficially stimulate or make active and lively."

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