This morning I sent my Caleb and my nephew~ Coltin off to church camp. I got up at o' dark thirty to send them off. I told them I am expecting God to do great things this week and He had a special message for them and I believe it. Please pray God will work in the hearts of our teen group this week at Camp Sagmount! For the first time since our honeymoon we are home alone this week~ Bittersweet!
SO as I am wide awake I decided to read the Daily Bread this morning.
(Taken from the Daily Bread)
Dr. Deb Roy, a researcher and cognitive scientist with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, recorded the first 3 years of his child’s life to learn how humans acquire language. He and his wife rigged their home with recording devices, which they used to collect over 200,000 hours of audio and video footage. Amassing, condensing, and editing the recordings enabled them to hear baby sounds like “gaga” evolve into words like “water.”
The devotion went on to ask~ what if someone recorded all the communication in your home? What would the study reveal?
I want my words to not only be seasoned with kindness but I want them to be full of wisdom. It is so easy to spout off our opinions or ideas before we think. SO many times it does way more damage than good. The Bible tells us a fool utters his mind ~ before hearing all the the details. The older I get the more I realize I don't have all the answers and it is just best to go to God. My opinions don't matter~ my way doesn't matter~ so is is just best to keep my ideas to myself. We can always point people to God's Word~ it is always right and it always has the answer.
Proverbs 18:13
King James Version (KJV)
13 He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him.
We can be so quick to talk about others when they are different than us or do things differently. God has convicted me of this and I have been working on it for a long while and have a long while to go. Did you know it is sin to devour one another with our word and opinions? (Even if we are having a family talk~ or talking with our best friend.)
Ephesians 4:29
King James Version (KJV)
29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.
Several years ago one of my children attended our Christian School for her high school years. She had been homeschooled most of her life and her siblings were homeschooled through all their school years.
She overheard some of our closest friends talk about how strange homeschoolers were and that we march to our own drum. ( Don't get me wrong ~ we are strange and we do color outside of the box or we would not home school in the first place.) Yet ~ hearing this did not edify or build her up or me for that matter. In fact she being a young girl, was discouraged that her momma's friends would feel this way about her mother. Now I forgave those ladies and they are still my very good friends. Instead of getting angry with them I determined to not do the same thing. We~ "Christians" are so good at this. May God convict us. In this situation~ I instead asked God to reveal the times I had done this very thing out of foolishness.
I hear it it with homeschool~ verses public school~ verses Christian school debates. I hear it with militant mothers~ verses relaxed parenting mothers. Friend ~can you hear me for just a minute?
Let us stop and think that God does not make cookie cutter children. He gave us the parents we have for a reason. He gave us the children he wants us to have for a purpose. He has a plan for each of our lives. How about today we give each other a break and love each other instead of judging each other?
I promise you we will all look back and realize it is only the grace of God that made any of us successful in any area of our lives. You see our words have the power to build or destroy~ we choose how we will use them.
With God's help we can identify and transform our destructive speech into words of encouragement that are used to edify one another and impart grace to the hearers.
Take my voice and let me sing
Always, only, for my King;
Take my lips and let them be
Filled with messages for Thee. —Havergal
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