Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways
acknowledge him,and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6

Friday, January 14, 2011

A First Time for Everything

Okay so, Johnny and I do not cuss.  We try very hard to shelter Caleb from TV shows with bad language, but honestly, if we wanted to completely shelter him - - we'd have no TV whatsoever.  That is not realistic for us.  I hear about some families able to do that, but ah, well, we're not one of them.

It's hard these days to totally eliminate programs with a bad word here and there.  But, we try for the most part to do that.  In the event that something does slip by, one of us says, "bad word."  This has been what we do.  Caleb uses it back on us sometimes when he hears us say something he "thinks" is a bad word.  Over all it's been an okay system.  And it's worked.  Until now.

I was feeding the puppy one morning this week.  She was still hungry and so I had decided to give her a bit more for her tummy.  I figured with the cold weather she needed the fattening up anyway.  Caleb ran to the back door and I heard, "Mom, are you feeding the puppy again?"  I said, "Yes, she seems to still be hungry."  Caleb calmly replies, "what the h*$#."  As the puppy chow dropped into the bowl with a plunking sound, I turned my head to the side, eyebrows raised, and asked, "what did you say?"   Little feet took off like a rocket to hide.

Maybe I could have used this opportunity to leave no shadow beyond a doubt that cussing is unacceptable.  But, I decided for the first infraction of the "no bad word" rule, we'd just talk about it. At the appropriate moment, I will tell him the story about his daddy who cussed one time in front of his mom, otherwise known as Nee Nee to Caleb.  I think we can make some progress with that story.  Soap in mouth doesn't sound too appealing after all - - and maybe that's why I couldn't bring myself to do it this time.  But, I won't hesitate again if it seems to become something he can't control.

After all, Lightening McQueen in his favorite movie, "Cars,"says at one point, "I'm in hillbilly h*#@!"  We just have to learn the boundaries...We all have them.

For now I leave you with this...

"No rotten talk should come from your mouth, but only what is good for the building up of someone in need." (Ephesians 4:29)


Thank you T. for posting this on facebook this week.  It seems perfect for this situation and a very good reminder.


In His Name,
Pam

1 comment:

  1. I'm not ready for Piper's first "BLEEP!" hehehe

    ReplyDelete