Good Words

It is funny how mothering a family works. The more I try to teach the children, the more I realize they help me to learn and grow.

I am using some of the activities for Lent from a book called A Year With God, and I believe I will gain at least as much as they will from these simple exercises. The focus for this first full week of Lent is "Good Words". Tonight we read how good fruit comes of good words, but angry or thoughtless words (or voices!) serve only to tear another person down.

As I was reading these thoughts to them, my mind recalled all the times when I snap impatiently. When I yell at them to be quiet. (Yeah, I know...) When I use sarcasm instead of encouragement. When I interrupt. After I finished reading I did something that was very hard for me to do; I told them I knew I had a problem with using bad words, I apologized to them, and asked for them to help me.

We decided that "Remember good words!" will be our code to remind each other. So, we'll see how it goes for me this week. What will I do when they catch me raising my voice? How will I react the first time one of them smiles at me and says, "Remember good words, Mama!" With God's grace, I will smile and thank them for the encouragement. Please pray for me to have that grace! If anybody can share recommendations or personal experience with this, feel free to leave a comment or e-mail me. And remember- good words this week!

God bless!