There are three things that make me frustrated, yea, four that I get pretty darn annoyed about:
when someone accuses without good reason or evidence (forgetting 2 or 3 witnesses, and that one side always seems right until you hear the other side, and that only God knows the heart and intentions)
when parents ignore the voices of their children, that might be repetitious or whiny, or before the kid is old enough to speak clear english, or is simply full of too many questions (forgetting that the kingdom of heaven is for people like this, and that they are the source of everything to these 2-and-3ft tall information-sponges, and that communication now matters for communication 10 years from now)
when parents speak harshly and/or degradingly to their children, because the adult is under stress, the kid needs straitened out, or this is how the adult speaks to everyone and the kid should be used to it (forgetting the gravity of stumbling one of the least of these, and that being named stupid or bratty can become self-fulfilling just as all names can)
when someone speaks thoughtlessly and cruelly and then acts as though a quick "sorry" or "that's not what I meant" can erase it (forgetting that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, and that we are to be slow to speak for a reason, and that sharp words are like poison that goes down into the innermost parts, and cannot be simply apologized for and coated with sugar to cancel their deadliness)
Amen.
ReplyDeleteAnd here's another amen as well.
ReplyDeleteAmen #3 :-)
ReplyDelete#4. :)
ReplyDeleteMay God enable me to remember, and not forget, these very things.
#5. I love that three of your four are to do with kids. After all, were not all villains once victims? Many parents have all the gentleness and constructive effect of a wrecking ball, save that the damage they do is much longer lasting.
ReplyDeleteJesse, just to be persnickety, I think you mean 2 of 4.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, sometime I hate how dense parents can be.