Claire's Mouth

Yesterday as we were riding in the car, Claire became frustrated about something or other. Probably something having to do with not having enough snacks. Anyway, she let out a loud, frustrated yell in response to something I said.

"Claire, that is not appropriate. That noise is disrespectful to Mommy."

 A few minutes later Claire said, "I have more of those noises in my mouth."

"Oh," I replied. "Then we need to think of something else to do when they show up. Tell you what. Whenever those noises come into your mouth, try this. Close your eyes, take a big breath, and pray, 'Jesus, please take these noises out of my mouth.'"

So we practiced that, and she did great. A few minutes later it happened again, and this time she asked me to pray for her. So I did, and it occurred to me that we should not only ask Jesus to take the angry noises out, but to put something else in - so we prayed that He would replace them with words of love and kindness.

Later that evening, we were about to eat supper, and I asked Claire if she had thanked God for the food. She bowed her head and prayed, "God, thank You for this food, and thank You for changing my heart. Amen."

My heart might have melted a little. A few minutes later she got mad about something and dumped her plate of food into the floor. But you know what? I'm thankful for that moment of grace that God gave me toward the end of a challenging day with my 3 year old, to remind me that yes, He is in fact working in her heart, and no, the time that we spend training her in God's Word is not going to waste, and well, no, in the end it really has very little to do with my efforts as much as it does HIS Spirit working to plant HIS Word in her heart and making the soil softer so that one day HIS gospel will take root.

Another funny thing is that these days, whenever I go in to tuck Claire in, she will say to me, "Do you have any songs in your mouth tonight, Mommy?" There's something that she gets about what comes out of our mouths, that sometimes I have trouble remembering. Whether it is outbursts of anger in the car, or songs of praise by the bedside, maybe she understands that "out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks." Thanks, Claire, for the reminder.