Every Friday, WordPress offers up a writing prompt. You can see today’s right above this paragraph and the link will take you to other WordPress bloggers that have answered the question. I thought it might be fun to start answering these. If you have a question or prompt you’d like me to answer, let me know in the comments and I’ll answer.
As for today’s prompt, my answer came to me right away.
When my kids were young, our bedtime routine was to read a children’s bible and say a prayer together. We would sit on the floor in the hallway between their rooms. The prayer was always the same formula:
Dear God,
Thank you for… (they would fill in with people/things they were thankful for that day)
Please help… (any concerns or worries they had)
Help us have a great night’s sleep, dry sheets, and a great day tomorrow.
Amen
Yes, it’s cheesy, but I miss those prayers. Even when the dry sheets didn’t happen.
Anyway, as with any set of siblings, there was a fair amount of bickering between them on a regular basis. Still is. It doesn’t matter that they are twins and super close (most of the time), they still drive each other crazy. One day I’d had enough and I can’t remember what brought the verse to my attention, but God has a way of putting just the right verse in front of you when you need it.
Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
Ephesians 4:32
This verse saved my sanity. When the kids would start to argue, all I had to say was “Is that kind and compassionate?” and the bickering would stop. For a little while, at least.
We wrote the verse on signs that we posted throughout the house. A reminder to all of us to use kind words and give each other grace. I still have one of those signs taped to my bathroom mirror. It’s a bit droopy and dusty (I’m a terrible housekeeper), but it still means a lot to me when it catches my eye.
I’m thinking I need to bring that verse back into our daily life. The kids still remember it, but I am not sure they remember to live by it inside our house. I feel like they’re mostly kind and compassionate outside of the house with people they encounter, but they forget that it applies to family too.
Much too often, we get so comfortable with the fact that family will always be there and love us that we forget that they deserve kindness and compassion too. I mean, I’m glad they’re comfortable and confident that we won’t ever stop loving them, but it sure would be nice if they could actually be nice.
Lately they have been really getting under each other’s skin a lot. Which gets under my skin. I think I’ll start using my “Is that kind and compassionate” line from when they were little. Maybe it will still work!
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