The other day:
“Was das?” pudgy finger points towards my eye.
“My eye.”
“No, was das on yo eye?”
“My eyelashes.”
“Oh yo eye-asses…I got eye-asses too!”
Unlike some families (here I would link to Jaymarie’s post, except I am a total knucklehead and don’t know how. Suffice it to say her family isn’t in the habit of name calling) when a member of our family experiences abuse or injustice he or she is usually willing to give immediate and unedited feedback. At times it involves calling some names. My 9 yo son has been known to be a meanie and a big bully according to my 7 yo daughter. Although both have been reprimanded every time, him for being a meanie and a big bully, her for calling it so succinctly, it stuck in the tape-recorder-like mind of our 2 yo. One day she was being oppressed by her older brother and she wouldn’t take it. “You beeg bowlie!” She howled. I bit my lip while correcting her then had a huge laugh in my room. A week later she wanted ice cream for lunch, a most unusual request which was quickly denied. After calling me, you know what, she spent some time in her crib. Today her sister wouldn’t give her a cookie and was immeditely branded. More crib.
When she is freed she is always penitent, “I sorry for calling you a beeg bowlie. You agive me?” And so we pray and ask God to fill her heart with love and to help her to speak kind and respectful words. We want her to, as the Bible says, “Be angry and sin not.” Now I am just learning this myself as my husband can attest. But I want a heart filled with love which leaves no room for bitter condemnation.
Our pastor preached a sermon on weeping anger, which is righteous anger, anger at injustice that weeps for the hard hearts being unjust. Most of my anger in life has been the adult equivalent of not getting to eat ice cream for lunch, selfish frustration. I don’t know a lot about weeping anger but I am willing to learn. Pastor Dave encouraged us to pray for it. And I will because I want my feisty two year old and her siblings to see (not just be told) how to live.
Good thoughts, Alison! “weeping anger”–I’ve never heard it put that way, but it stirs my soul just to think about it…what if I also pray about it? hmmmmm…
thank you so much for this post.
anger… adult version of two year old… humm, I see myself in that. thanks for the focus.
(i do believe that the only reason my kids haven’t yet started name calling is due to lack of exposure. they are only just 4 and nearly 3 – look me up when they are 7 and 8 – then we can talk name calling! 😉
your posts just keep me coming back for more. thanks.
“Most of my anger in life has been the adult equivalent of not getting to eat ice cream for lunch, selfish frustration.” Ahh, I SO relate to that. And I’m embarrassed about the silly, stupid things I let myself get angry and frustrated over. Such a good reminder for me…
Hey Ladies,
Thanks for your thoughts and comments and of course for reading.
If you are interested in anger there will be at least a couple more posts since it is a huge area of sin in my life.
Hope you are all well.
“Eye-asses” – lol. I remember playing cards with one of our German exchange students (oh, what was his name? – ack!) and he asked, “Do you have any asses?” Funny word.
I know. Can you even imagine how happy and giggly I was to be able to use it here on a family show.
Was it Karim?
*Slaps forehead* That’s it.
I get a fair amount of pleasure in transcribing my children’s speech phonetically. Not so much my son anymore, as a couple months with the speech therapist took care of his lisp this spring, but my daughter’s lack of the letter ‘r’ is a blast.
I had so much fun with their speech when they were really little. Oh, for instance, when my son was three, he couldn’t say his ‘L’ sounds well, particularly if they were in the middle of a word.
You can imagine the huge (40,000 people) Fourth of July picnic at Ft. Vancouver, the first year that Old Navy really went crazy with their patriotic shirts. “Look, Mama,” he’d say LOUDLY, pointing directly at every Old Navy shirt he could spy, “there’s another flag.”
Except that he didn’t say ‘flag.’