Yesterday morning in our house, we all woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Or should I say, Eden was in the wrong bed, and Zoë got up at the wrong time.
Whatever the wrongness was exactly, it began a series of events that precipitated various trails of destruction.
The glitter episode was a major glitch in my day. Anyone who knows me knows that (unlike most people) I don’t mind a bit of glitter – as long as its administration is closely supervised. My kids love it, and a dusting of sparkles never did anyone any harm.
But a deluge of glitter generously dumped onto the floor when my back is turned… combined with a meltdown of epic proportions when I dared to hoover up their precious abstract masterpiece? That’s enough to make me lose my cool!
What pushed me over the edge, though, was a mud soup exercise gone wrong. Just as God clearly instructed Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, I laid out in no uncertain terms that Zoë and Eden could stir the mud, add ingredients to the mud, but they could NOT get into the mud. That was the one precondition. That was the forbidden fruit.
But the temptation was too great, and my fuse was too short.
My kids left a trail of destruction behind them today. But I left behind my own path of impatient encounters, cross words and harsh attitudes. What they needed from me was an appropriate consequence, but what they got from me was untethered belligerence.
Yesterday evening, I made my mind up that tomorrow’s trail would be one of forgiveness, grace, fun and embrace instead.
Because truth is, at the end of each day we will either have left a pretty path for those we’ve encouraged, or a heavy load for those we’ve wounded.
You see, human hearts are like wet cement- how you treat them will leave a lasting impression – for good or for ill- on people’s lives.
I don’t know about you, but by the end of each day and the end of my days I do not want what is left behind to be:
🌱Sticky sarcasm or cutting humour
🌱sharp shards of broken relationships
🌱Spatters from shouting and mud slinging
🌱Smears from hurt feelings and unfulfilled promises
‘Human hearts are like wet cement- how you treat them will leave a lasting impression’
Instead, I want my life’s trail to be:
🌱A trickle of Breadcrumbs of kindness that people can follow to find their way home
🌱A sprinkling of sparkling, life -giving words that cause faces to glow and eyes to shine
🌱 A channel of grace that draws people in to taste the measureless love of God for the very first time.
🌱 I want to leave footprints of healing and hope, and tread the injustices I see into the ground.
‘Wherever we go, whatever we do, we will leave a trail behind us for the world to see.’
Tyler Knott Gregson
The question is, what will yours be?
H x
Looking for Eden 