Is this my conversation?

Kids =

creativity and...

wisdom

An old hymn offers a prayer for help in speaking only kind and right words:
"Take my lips and let them be
Filled with messages from Thee…”

– And keep them closed the rest of the time!
The third line is my personal addition.

One of the graces that blesses relationships is knowing when to speak and when to keep silent. Recently my third-grade grandson helped me figure this out.

He and I were working at one end of the kitchen. At the other end of the room, his brother and his other grandmother were doing homework. Voices rose, and I chimed in, all the way across the room, with an opinion.

My grandson, standing beside me, quietly pointed out, “Grandma, that isn’t your conversation.”

My know-it-all comment jolted to a halt. “You’re right!” I said to the little guy. “What you just said is so helpful!”

I have since been pondering what is my conversation and what is not. I realized the answer to this question has to do with respect. Respecting others’ conversations means not jumping in uninvited. How totally simple.

In fact it’s so easy, I think I can do it. Apparently what’s required is breaking an old habit.

I like what Mary Baker Eddy says about struggling to do the right thing – that it’s a prayer in action. “The habitual struggle to be always good is unceasing prayer.”

I’m sure I will have plenty of opportunity this coming week to live that prayer!

Nail in the Fence Post

This email came along today, and its message of self-control is worth sharing.


There once was a little boy with a short temper and a wise and caring daddy.

So one day his Dad gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper he must hammer a nail deep into a 2x4 fence post. The first day the boy drove 37 nails into the post. He hit his thumb a few times too.

Over the next next few weeks he learned to control his anger, and the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled. He discovered it was pleasanter to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.

Finally the day came when the boy didn't lose his temper at all. He told his dad about this achievement, and the father praised his success. Then he suggested that the boy now pull out one nail each day that he succeeded in not losing his temper.

This was not so easy to do, as some of the nails had gone in crooked or gotten bent over, or were pounded in so far it was difficult for the claw of the hammer to get a grip on the nailhead.

Months passed until the lad was finally able to tell his dad that all the nails had been removed. The dad praised him warmly. Then he took his son by the hand and they walked to the fence together.

They looked at the holes in the post. His dad said, "This fence post has a lot of holes in it. It will never be the same. When people say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this hole. Angry words can cut like a knife. It won't matter how many times you say I'm sorry, someone has been wounded. A verbal wound can hurt as bad as a physical one.”

The book of Proverbs

confirms the value of self-control,

"He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty.

He who rules his temper is greater than a conqueror."