Zippity Dah

Be not rash with thy mouth,

and let not thine heart be hasty

to utter anything before God:

for God is in heaven,

and thou upon earth:

therefore let thy words be few.

This is ever so very difficult for me. I speak and complain out loud when no one is around, but I forget that I am not my own, and that these words are heard by God, even if no man hears them.

Do not revile the king even in your thoughts,

or curse the rich in your bedroom

because a bird of the air may carry your words,

and a bird on the wing may report what you say

What? Is that where the saying, 'a little birdie told me' came from?

Recently my good friend and teacher, Michael Bunker, expounded on feminine Christian graces and once again I am horrified that I display so few.

I am the eldest of five girls. We were taught to respect our elders. We would never disrespect our parents, and especially never talk back to our father. We also were brought up in sarcasm/ slamfest city. If you're not quick witted, you're going down in a hailfire of smart-aleck remarks. Spontaneous wit (some people call it another word, which rhymes with 'wit') is quite difficult to overcome. Oddly, I'm best at slamming those who display the tendencies that I find most loathsome in myself. Don't get me wrong, I slam myself just as much, but mostly that's just so you can't do it first. Still I find it funny. I'd rather laugh at problems, bring them in the light, and then deal with them. Anyway, all that rhetoric was just to say that "quiet" is not on my list of strong points. Whenever I'm quiet most people think I'm sick or something

This is just one of my problems, but it really is the gateway of all the others. My constant prayer is that God helps me shut my mouth much more. In my family we take our hand and do the little mouth motion one might do to indicate a chatty Kathy, except we just do it once, slowly, while saying a sort of 'zip your mouth' indication......Zippity Dah. Which means you should really shush up asap.

May God grant me more ability to have Zippity Dah Days, and an abundance of Feminine Christian Graces.