Mama Monday: Bubblin' Over

At the beginning of January, I joined the Gentleness Challenge on the Women Living Well blog, which I love to read. Last week as part of my learning to be a gentle mother, I wrote about loving our children.

But what does loving our children look like? And does our motherhood show that we love them? The easiest way for your children to gauge how you feel about them is how you talk to them. I've written a few posts in the past about using courteous speech and kind words, but today I want to focus on what happens when courtesy flies out the window and kind words seem few and far between.

Let's face it, while we would all like to use gentle words to our children every time we talk to them (this really is my goal), some days it is just impossible. I find myself unleashing a volcano of ugly, loud speech. This does not promote family togetherness and affection!

I've been trying to become more aware of what is going on inside of me that leads to these eruptions and there is one thing that I've noticed. When I start feeling frustrated, angry, pressured, stressed, the ugly that is inside of me comes out. It comes out as sarcasm (this is my preferred method), raised voice (second favorite), complaining (third favorite), and many others that I can't think of right now. And the lava spews on to my husband and my kids more than anyone else.

And, of course, in true Heavenly Father fashion, I stumbled across this verse in my Bible study this week: The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance fo the heart his mouth speaks. (Luke 6:45)

So for my part of the Gentleness Challenge this week is to recognize when those rumblings are starting to happen under the surface, remove myself from the room, go somewhere to pray, get myself under control, and stop the evil pouring out of my mouth. If my heart is full of God's fruit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control), then there will be no room for anger, sarcasm, complaining, etc.

I want my children to see that I love them, feel that I love them, and, most importantly, hear that I love them in EVERY. SINGLE. WORD. that I say to them.

Speaking only what is encouraging to my children in the treehouse,

Chelli