Big ears big eyes

I went fishing with a buddy of mine from church the other day and was a little surprised with the language that he used. His profanity is what I refer to as “conversational” profanity, which is conversation laced with “soft core” words and was spoken in conversational tones and not in a rage, but nonetheless profanity. I do not think my buddy even realizes that he is using profanity, but practically every sentence contained a damn or Hell or something to that effect.

My son told me the other day about an incident that occurred when he and his family were going out to eat. To get to the restaurant they traveled down the boulevard as if going to my house. At the intersection where he would ordinarily turn right to go to my house, he instead needed to turn left to go to the restaurant. When he got into the left lane to turn towards the restaurant, one of his twins said, “No! Papaw! No! Papaw!”, and pointed to the right towards my house. She thought they were going to my house and wanted to point out the correct route. That is pretty amazing considering this child is not even two years old and is just now learning to say a few words and on occasion put a couple of words together. Who would have dreamed that she was so observant sitting back there in her car seat as to recognize the way to our house? (Who would have dreamed that she was already a female back-seat driver giving instructions to my son, the male driver, at one and half years old?)

Ah, but they do learn quickly do they not? (All the more reason to be careful of what we say and do around our kids and grandkids.) My fishing buddy could not say enough about his eight grandkids while we were fishing and I know that he loves them with all of his heart and would never deliberately do anything to harm them in any way. I know that if he had his choice he would not want them talking like that. I know because I have the same problem. I don’t know where it got started, but sometime in my youth I started using profanity and have struggled with it ever since. Each year it nearly always tops my list of self improvement goals, but conquering it has been a struggle. I would pay a hefty price for the opportunity to go back in time and never develop this bad habit.

Apparently my son and his wife are doing a good job as all I have heard the twins say is, “Oh me”, a phrase I often hear from my son. My buddy and I are apparently not the only ones with this problem however; as both my son and my daughter-in-law recently admonished my wife after she kept the twins one day. As the story goes when they got home from picking the twins up from my house after my wife had babysat them all day, the twins were running all over the house the rest of the night repeating a bad word over and over again. Although she vehemently denies it, I have heard this expression on occasion myself when my wife pitches one of her fits, and it is readily apparent to me as to the source of it. The bottom line is that little pictures have big ears and wide eyes so be careful of what you say and do when around these little scutters. And just in case you haven’t thought of it, the Lord is watching and listening too…



Proverbs 15:3
The eyes of the Lord are in
every place,
Keeping watch on the evil and
the good.