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Kind words aren’t strangers when everything is going my way,
like when when it’s a relatively quiet morning, and I can sip my coffee with no
interruptions. It’s when I am crossed, that I default into sharp tones and
cutting remarks.
Three F’s have enabled
me: fatigue, frustration and fear – they were a handy excuse to let ‘er
rip. God! I have said some bad
things – and thought worse things.
Reading an interview of a woman battling cancer triggered a
flood of memories of times I used F
words to excuse my unkindness to my family or friends because I felt lousy.
The wonder is I can try again to speak with kindness. (Psalm 118:24) But with that
wonder will also come an aggravation – the proportions of which I could use
again as an excuse to use words as weapons.
Today, I read about a practical restraint. Kara Tippetts*, facing the destruction
cancer brings asked the elders in her church simply, “. . . that I would
not use illness as an excuse to be unkind to my family.” (Trusting
God with Terminal Cancer)
·
When sleep eludes me, fatigue is not an excuse
to be unkind to anyone, those closest to me.
·
When my body won’t cooperate, frustration is not
an excuse to be unkind to anyone who is doing what I can’t.
·
When my mind wanders into too many what-if’s,
fear is not an excuse to be unkind to anyone – especially because they, too,
are walking through daunting or vexing times.
In others’ words:
By swallowing evil words unsaid,
no one has ever harmed his stomach. ~Winston Churchill
Don't be yourself — be someone a
little nicer. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic's Notebook, 1966
Kindness is in our power, even
when fondness is not. ~Samuel Johnson
Life is mostly froth and bubble,
Two things stand like stone,
Kindness in another's trouble,
Courage in your own. ~Adam Lindsay Gordon
Two things stand like stone,
Kindness in another's trouble,
Courage in your own. ~Adam Lindsay Gordon
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