The words of my mouth

“Lay hold, upon the good things of the Lord. And let your conversation be acceptable in
the sight of the Lord. Let me be a minister of thy peace, that the world might see, the love
of God in me.”

Relationships in general have a way of knocking off the rough corners of our personalities. it starts as children. Our parents (hopefully) purposefully working in and on us to change bad habits and trying to find and encourage the positive side of potentially destructive personality bends. Inflexibility becomes courage and determination. Messy curiosity becomes creative expression. Over-sensitivity becomes the tender heart of a servant. Bossiness becomes leadership. Of course this is the path we *hope* parenting takes... not always the way life pans out. As we make friends, these friendships teach us more about grace, forgiveness, trust and loyalty. Marriage is the first of these relationships that is a truly *chosen* relationship. Many times it is the steepest of the learning curves and brings the hugest training in humility and servant hood. When children arrive, every concept we have learned up until that point is put to the test. Can we give up everything we see as a right and freedom to a 7 lb er when even our body has been stripped of strength? I've come to realize that when my parents were trying to train and discipline me, God was working on *them*. It wasn't "teacher/student"... it was a "student/student" relationship. Here is my latest lesson...perhaps magnified because of the extra "get-togethers".

Despite distance, my sisters and I have committed to get together as much as we can. In the last few years we've all noticed a change in our ability to have wide open conversation. The last few visits with either of my sisters we have found ourselves severely conscious of listening ears. During one conversation that was verging on sensitive topics, we looked around to find one of the children sitting on the couch behind us, deeply engaged in our conversation. Another time stopping short, realizing that there was a child "sleeping" a few feet away. The other day my oldest daughter, an avid outdoors-girl declined going fishing with her dad because i had company coming over and she said she wanted to "listen to us talk". I don't remember when this happened for *me* as a kid, when listening in on the adults was more entertaining that playing hide and seek in and snooping through my grandmothers' closet, but I know i went through this too. It can be inconvenient for the adults but it can also be refining. :) How many of these discreet conversations could/should be deleted? How many of these conversations are used as a venting of poor attitude rather than an exercise in speaking grace and truth? While thinking about all of these things and looking forward to my sisters' visit this weekend, an old song from my youth group days came back to me and I've been singing it to Wesley when I rock him.

“Lay hold, upon the good things of the Lord. And let your conversation be acceptable in
the sight of the Lord. Let me be a minister of thy peace, that the world might see, the love
of God in me.”

God, use the words of my everyday conversations to lead my children into your arms. Help them to have a deeper understanding of the love of God because of the words I use. Let my conversation be acceptable in Your sight and for my words to bring peace and not confrontation. Change me again.