I have a five year old conscience and her name is Mary. In Mary's world everything is either black or white. There are no grey areas. One area that is especially black and white for her, is grey for me: Bad words. She has been taught that certain words are bad and should not be said. I, on the other hand, say these words without thinking and find myself reprimanded. Here are the words I trespass on the most (You can be the judge):
Stupid: This is one of the worst words you can say. It is a five year old's swear word. I will often hear, "Awww, Miss Stephenie, you said a bad word!" Mary often feels the need to tell me when someone else says this word, "He said, STU...(big eyes, head nodding)...P...ID." She caught this word being sung in a song one day and was appalled. You can imagine the shock when reading a children's book with that word in it.
Hate: This is another very bad word. You should not say this...ever. I use this word when I am very upset about something (like math, or road construction). I have caught myself on the verge of using this word vehemently many times around Mary. I'll never forget the shock on her face when I declared one day that I hated something and she said, "Miss Stephenie, you shouldn't say that word." She's right. I try to be less hateful about things. Five year old's don't understand generalizations.
Shut up: This is a terrible thing to say to someone. Just the other day one of Mary's friends told this to someone at school. She came home and of course had to tell me about it, "He said, SH...Uh...T Uh...P" It's amazing how sounding it out isn't as bad as actually saying it.
It is so hard to explain to a five year old conscience why we use these "bad" words.
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4 comments:
There are no gray areas with God either. Makes you stop and think doesn't it.
It'd been nice if everything was that simple, but when feelings get mixed up into things, dang, it's hard to see anything other then gray.
Maybe I should say that there are no gray areas with God but there is grace. And yes when feelings get involved it is hard to see the truth. I have recently been through a trying time and before it started God told me what His will was but I ignored him because my emotions told me something else. What a foolish choice. It cost me pain and confusion that was so needless if I only would have listened. God gave me his grace and helped me make it right. He is truth and light and if we listen to him he will guide us to the "white".
Hey! There's that grace thing again! I don't know where any of us would be without it. It is incredibly easy to get lost in the gray. I guess that is why its so important for our eyes to be on Jesus and not on the world, or on ourselves. That's hard sometimes too!
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