ok, i'm sitting here getting more and more irritated.
there's a person that is standing across from us, the other side of the aisle -
literally, talking and talking and talking. she has a loud voice. i cannot see her, don't know her name or who she is, but i
now know all about her pink eye potential, her aspirations to work in a place
with less hours, how to toss a ball, etc. etc. etc.
i got up and went to the bathroom, sat in there for i think maybe 20 minutes - concentrating.....
i went to the break room to make my soup for lunch.
i come back to my desk and there is the voice. still going on.
i have my headphones on and they are nowhere near drowning out the voice.
now. i didn't get a lot of sleep last nite, and my head hurts, and i am irritable, i know.
so i'm trying to ignore this voice. but it's difficult.
just about the time i think, i can either tell my mgr, or go speak to her myself
(the last time i did that there was quite an incident between me and another person, so i hesitate)
so i look at my email inbox and there is todays devo from Lysa TerKeurst's blog which says:
i got up and went to the bathroom, sat in there for i think maybe 20 minutes - concentrating.....
i went to the break room to make my soup for lunch.
i come back to my desk and there is the voice. still going on.
i have my headphones on and they are nowhere near drowning out the voice.
now. i didn't get a lot of sleep last nite, and my head hurts, and i am irritable, i know.
so i'm trying to ignore this voice. but it's difficult.
just about the time i think, i can either tell my mgr, or go speak to her myself
(the last time i did that there was quite an incident between me and another person, so i hesitate)
so i look at my email inbox and there is todays devo from Lysa TerKeurst's blog which says:
A few weeks ago two of my kids were having a growth
opportunity. If you’ve been hanging out here on my blog for a while, you know
‘growth opportunity’ is the phrase us TerKeurst’s use for a ‘fight.’
It’s like when people say pink is the new black. Growth opportunity
is the new fight.
Anyhow.
Back to the two kids who love each other but didn’t like
each other very much in the heat of the moment.
I pulled out my proverbial soap box, got my hand
positioned just right on my hip, and told these two youngin’s to look outside
the window of our home. Outside our home exists a world of people who may or
may not be nice to us. There are no guarantees.
But inside this house… (I turned the two children toward
one another) … there are certain guarantees.
Since the day I birthed you, which by the way was
excruciatingly painful but that is a topic for another day, I have preached one
sermon about the words spoken in our home. It is a simple sermon. Before you
part your little sweetheart lips to speak, you must ask yourself this question:
Are my words kind, necessary, and true?
If the answer to all three parts of that question is yes…
proceed ahead.
If the answer to any part of that question is no… stop
the words from coming out.
Does that mean there is no room to address the hard
issues with one another? No. But it will always be done with a spirit of
kindness using only words that are necessary and true.
I then ushered these precious ones outside to a bench in
my front yard and instructed them to figure out their issues between the two of
them. But they were not going to bring words into my house unless they were
kind, necessary, and true. Thank you very much. Have a nice time on this cold
little bench on this cold little day.
Be sure when reading that last paragraph to do it with
the mama attitude. I’ll wait right here if you need to go back and re-read with
attitude.
So. There are these Scripture verses in James that I’m
considering tattooing on the palm of my hand.
Well, maybe not the needle kind of tattoo… maybe just a
henna thingy.
But think of how handy it would be just to flash my palm
up in the midst of my people’s growth opportunities with this verse in bold
ink: “With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse
people, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise
and cursing. My people, this should not be,” (James 3: 9-10).
That same chapter of James goes on to read, “For where
you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil
practice,” verse 16.
Have mercy. I do not want disorder and every evil
practice to be invited into my home. And if ugly words are the key that opens
the door for all that evil mess, than by golly I will do everything with the
power of Jesus in me to tame tongues. My tongue. Their tongue. And even my
dogs’ tongues if I suspect they’re having some issues with this.
And all my Jesus girlfriends said, Amen!
He's
messin with me today!
payback
for the two pints of icecream i ate for dinner last nite, i'm sure!