needhope's Journal

Devotion--That's a Mouthful!!!!!!!!!!!!!---Susan L. Lenzkes

Don't look now Lord!

I don't want You

to see me

standing here with my big foot

crammed in my mouth

Don't worry, child.

If I didn't love you

just as much with your

foot in your mouth,

I'd hardly ever get a

chance to love you.

Mothers are often forced to utter things other people wouldn't even think. One day I actually heard myself yelling in my hand-on-hips tone of voice, "All right! Who put the fire truck in the toilet?"

A lot of motherly queries seem to be preceeded by the weary word, "Who put the...," and end with a scamble of objects so strange they could be a mad Parker Brothers' game of chance.

Over the years, anyone who happened to be in the wrong place at the right time could have heard me asking who put: the cereal behind the couch? (the ants found it first); the pine cones in my purse? (I discovered them during church); the lemon pudding mix in the wading pool? (it was gelling in the corners); the toothpaste on the wall? (it looked like a fluoridated Picasso); the toy dish in the oven? (the flames were leaping out the vent).

Actually, parents should lbe taught not to ask questions, because either no one did it, or the other guy did it. And if you ever do manage to pin the culprit, you tend to ask why. "Why did you put the rock in the refrigerator?" And then you get the answer: "Because I wanted a cold rock."

It's obvious that parenthood requires carloads of patience. And I could feel reasonably righteous and boisterously losing that patience when the going gets rough, if it werent for the fact that God has to lavish so much of it on me.

Occasionally, after I've lost my temper at the children, I've heard my heavenly Father patiently asking, "Who put the foot in the mouth?"

Scripture for the day-Proverbs 13:3 ---He who guards his lips guards his life but he who speaks rashly will come to ruin.