Infiltrated

Our family is a little over a week into summer vacation. The first few days were of the delightful variety—slowly making our way into the morning, time to read with no schedule to follow, boys in the yard pitching to each other, riding four wheelers and flip flops littered all over the floor. Then our home was subtly infiltrated by what started as an impatient breeze and quickly turned into a sharp windstorm of words flying around trying to knock each other down. The tongue is a sure indicator of one’s heart and I was feeling quite discouraged at the damage that it was doing.

It was really a “mild” exchange of words, which was precisely what troubled me. It’s in our nature to believe that our spoken words are cheap. But it just isn’t so! There are some things that a mother prays for diligently. For me, there are two things that I have prayed over my children consistently. One, that they would know the Creator God and that they would follow Him all the days of their lives. And two, that they would be best friends to each other, a band of brothers (and one sister) that are stronger and more courageous than I have ever been. The words that were going back and forth allowed for a peek into my children’s hearts. For that, I was thankful! They exposed the competition to be the strongest, the pride of the heart to be the best, the unyielding to a spirit of kindness to put one another first. How well do I know these things!!

As I talked my children through the power of their words and that their comments were causing a lot of hurt to each other, I was also being parented by my heavenly father and gently reminded that my own tongue has been an enemy and I’ve passively given it control and ignored the damage it has done. Who am I to be careless with my words? Like a slap in the face to God, I deny that I’m mastered by my tongue.

So I’m trying not to be frustrated when one son insists that his Lego creation is way better than his younger brothers. I’m trying to remember I’m not superior to my other son’s sentiment that “Dude, why did you do that? We lost because of you!”. These moments allow access to their little hearts and how my husband and I can try to guide them. Moreover, they serve to remind me to be quick to listen, slow to anger and slow to speak. ♥, Erin
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