It Works Both Ways!

The Bible says in Proverbs 15:3 "The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good."

We, as good Bible believers, like to use this verse to scare our children into obedience; don't we?  We like to tell them that even if we don't see them, God sees them and He knows when they are disobeying.  Whether you are a parent, a teacher, a Sunday School teacher, doesn't matter, we like to use verses like this to 'encourage' young people to do right.  But we seldom consider the end of the verse.  The Bible says that 'The eyes of the LORD are . . . beholding . . . the good"  too.  We don't tend to dwell on that as much.  For most of us, keeping our class in order, our children in order, ourselves in order is more about a list of don't's than a list of do's.  We teach our children to avoid sin, but do we teach them to love good?  It works both ways you know.

I remember being taught in highschool that there are various forms of motivation.  Fear of consequences, was one of the basic forms of motivation and love was one of the best forms of motivation.  I remember a Bible teacher telling me that most people accept God's gift of salvation because they don't want the punishment for sin which is death and hell.  He said that fear of consequences was the primary reason for salvation for most people.  I remember accepting God's gift of salvation for another reason.  Now, maybe I was too young to know any better since I was only four when I was saved, but I wanted to be saved because I believed that God loved me and I loved Him too.  I wanted to tell everyone I met how much God loved them.  Still today, I think most people have enough fear and pain and heartache in their lives.  How wonderful is the message that we have to give!  A message of hope for the hopeless and love for the lonely!  A message that God loves each of us.

I am so thankful that God's message is always one of encouragement to do right.  God's Word teaches us not only 'what not to do' but what we should do too.  I was reminded of that in a specific area this past week and I just wanted to share how God has used it to encourage me.

Oh Be Careful Little Mouth What You Say

There are certain words that we do not say in our house.  Of course, there are words that no one should ever say, but my kids don't even know those words so we have a list of other words that are 'bad words' in our house.  The problem is that Mommy forgets sometimes and says the 'bad words' when she thinks no one is listening.  I'll say, "I am so stupid" or "That was dumb" or something really innocent like "I forgot to shut the car door" (we don't say shutup in our house and randomly I will say shut and the kids will think I said the bad word).  That's when the conviction comes . . . My little Bethany (4 years old) will look at me with her big sad eyes and shake her head and say, "Mommy, Jesus doesn't like it when you say those words." 

Then, just yesterday, the twins were being very loud in their room.  They weren't being unkind or even bad, they were just being noisy.  That's when my Joy said, "I don't like it when they scream.  It makes me think they are screaming at me.  When someone screams at me it is like they are punching me."  I thought about that.  You know, they say 'sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me' - what a lie!  I'm sure that we can all think of at least one thing that someone said to us that still hurts us days, weeks, months, or even years later.  We remember those things and they hurt "like they are still punching you".   We do not allow anyone to scream at someone or call names or be unkind in our house.  But it works both ways.  Do I encourage my children to say kind words?  That is just as important.

A dear sweet lady at a youth conference over the weekend told me how much she appreciated my being there and my faithfulness to always be involved with youth rallies, ladies retreats, missions, couples retreats, etc . . . She said she had been thinking of telling me that for a while and just never did.  It was such a blessing to hear a word of encouragement.  I told her how much I appreciated it, how much it meant to me.  It reminded me of a verse my mom encouraged me with when I was in college.  I was afraid to meet new people and talk to people at school.  Mom gave me this verse:  Proverbs 3:27 "Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it."  Mama told me that a kind word, a simple 'hello', may not seem like much, but it really is good that you can do for someone else and it is in my power to do that for someone.  It made all the difference in the world to me when I was at school.   Now, I find it just as important in my home to speak kindness to my husband and my children.  I am teaching my children and I am purposed myself to say an encouraging word, give a compliment, do good with my words whenever it is in my power.  You never know how important an encouraging word can be.