A Broken Record May 3, 2010

Last week I sounded like a broken record…

“Stop it.”

“Please stop doing that.”

“Can you please stop?”

“How old are you?”

“Stop taking things away from your brother/sister.”

“Would you stop that, please?”

“Leave him alone!”

Each time I spoke the volume and pitch would raise just a tad until I would give up in total frustration. Ever have days like this? I really was not accomplishing anything. I had forgotten that “Speaking redemptively is refusing to let our talk be driven by passion and personal desire but communicating instead with God’s purposes in view. ” Paul David Tripp

Those commands came from a heart that was more focused on my purposes for the day. My plans, my agenda, my craving for peace. I was not serving or training my children, I was serving myself. The Holy Spirit convicted me that I had lost sight of God’s purpose in those situations. To take the time to show all of my children how to love and prefer each other. I had to sit all three of them down, even my two year old and confess that I was not speaking to them in the loving way that God had asked me to. I had to ask their forgiveness for not being loving with my words and attitudes, for being angry, and for not training them in the way of the Lord.

It took me a long time to make dinner that night. Instead of hollering from the kitchen, “Stop it!” I had to walk into their room, sit down and speak redemptively. Ask questions like, “Sweetheart, are you pursuing love towards your sister and promoting peace right now?” or “Do you think your words are building your brother up or tearing him down?” I am so grateful to see the Holy Spirit at work in all of us.

Have their been times recently where you see your speech towards your children driven by what is irritating you at the moment? Are you more quick to correct (even harshly at times) when they are inconveniencing you? Is your desire when you are correcting them that they would be drawn closer God?

Lord God, You are so kind and so faithful to ever so patiently, time and time again, reveal our sin to us. Lord, I pray that You help us to breathe grace to our children. To be grieved more over their sin against You then anything they would do to offend us at times. I pray that we would yield to Your purposes and work in their lives, and I pray that You would use us in a way that shows an example of the Gospel at work.  May the words that we speak be pleasing and acceptable to You today.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen.