Now I'm not talking curse words and taking the Lords name in vain (never good). I'm talking about working towards virtue in our speech instead of focusing on the worldly goals of prestige, fortune and success.
The other day my niece and I were playing a game that she made up for us to play. Granted I was trying to study for an accounting test at the time but I will always welcome the beautiful distraction of a niece over accounting any day.
In this particular game she divided a piece of paper into a bunch of funky shapes. The point of the game was to write a word in one of the shapes and then draw a shape that has as many sides as the word has letters. So yes the game doesn't make a lot of sense but she's 7 and I applaud her imagination and I had fun so it's all good. Take a look below!
my niece me
1st round: Wal-Mart lovely
2nd round: money thankful
3rd round: kindness gracious
4th round: faithful gratitude
5th round: familiy
From playing this game with her I watched how quickly her young mind was influenced by my actions. Watch how the words that she was choosing started to change after words of my own. Now I wonder what would have happened if I would have answered 'Wal-Mart' with 'Target' or 'money' with 'success'. What message would I have been portraying without even trying to?
How many times have little kids overheard arguments or complains or criticisms and changed their pure and innocent ways to mimic this? What if they heard us speak of love, kindness, tenderness, gratefulness, joy, sacrifice, service, prayer, openness, generosity, and fun instead?!
And these children with all of these thoughts in their mind and on their soul would grow up to be teenagers with these thoughts in their mind and on their soul who would turn in to adults striving for love, kindness, tenderness, gratefulness, joy, sacrifice, service, prayer, openness, generosity, and fun!
And oh how beautiful that would be.
1 comments:
I agree!
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