TODAY THE WORDS are TAKE IT DOWN A PEG. The thought of taking it down a notch came to mind but as I like to look up the origin; I couldn’t find any reference to “take it down a notch” for the origin. I did however link to “take it down a peg” so I assume this was the original expression. Here is the origin as stated in The Phrase Finder in The Phrase Dictionary.
To ‘take (or pull, or bring) down a peg (or two)’ is to lower someone’s high opinion of themselves.Origin
Various quantities and qualities have been measured by the use of pegs. It has been suggested that the pegs in question here were those used to regulate the amount of drink taken from a barrel, or those that controlled the hoisting of the colours (flags) of ships. Either of these might be correct although, like the ‘yards’ of ‘the whole nine yards‘, ‘pegs’ could relate to many things.
What I found interesting is how many times I have heard this phrase from parents telling their kids to take it down a notch. It seems to me, we need to take the whole world down a notch or peg. As a matter of fact, we need to lower the extremeness by several pegs. As a world who has lost perception of what makes us a great human race; we could use a lowered mast; a return to ground level; and a view from the level plains. We have distorted what we place value in or on. We seem to be enthralled by celebrities, bad boys and yes, bad girls; we are high on ourselves without thought of our families, friends and/or co-workers. Our neighbors are not friends; they are people we try to keep our distance. If we can get one over on another; we not only are happy about it; we gloat. We have become a world of “sue-them” and when a tragedy happens; it is not to families we call; we call lawyers to see if we have a case instead of getting down on knees to thank Our Maker for saving us from death. Even in death, we have become a vulture society to see what we inherit and not concentrating on the loss of a loved one.
I hope you are sitting and reading this and saying, “She is wrong; this isn’t me at all.” I purposely wrote this to see how many would contradict my words because this gives us hope we are not where we have to be brought down a peg or notch.
Now for my deeper thought……If we find ourselves in a position at any time where any of these seemingly horrible situations; we can take ourselves down a notch by thinking how we can humble ourselves by prayer and meditation. An ounce of ill-gotten gain has to take a ton of forgiveness. It is so much easier to take it down a notch; think and pray over a situation which could possibly hurt someone else. Life is to be lived with a focus of being a good person and encouraging instead of discouraging others.
DAILY FEATURED BIBLE VERSE:
James 4:6 ESV
But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
(c) copyright 2014 Arline Lott Miller. The material here copyrighted, use only by permission.
