Socks

 Don’t let any evil talk come out of your mouths. Say only what will help to build others up and meet their needs. Then what you say will help those who listen. Ephesians 4:29

In October of 2008, we took our first trip to Disney World with the big kids. I can assure you that I spent more time and energy planning that trip than I did writing my master's thesis. I read guide books. I read blogs. I sat on hold at the crack of dawn to get dining reservations. I planned each park day- the route, the rides, the meals. I got the oil changed in the van, bought the kids coordinating outfits for each day. We read Disney books, watched all the Disney movies. We even started walking the neighborhood every day to prepare for all the walking. I packed car travel surprises for the kids. I had envelopes for each day - budgeted the tips for meals, the tolls, the gas, the souvenir money.

Sweet Daddy packed himself.

The day before we left for Disney, the Princess came down with strep throat. Inside the window of "it's too late to get your money back" so on we went, with her antibiotics, and a script for the rest of us should we get it too.

Upon arriving at Disney, we checked in, unpacked and got ready to head to park. And this is when we discovered that Sweet Daddy had one pair of socks. The pair on his feet. He, who wears tennis shoes all the time, had not packed socks.

I'll give you Mama Warriors a moment with that. He, who only had to pack himself, had no socks.

I handed him his souvenir envelope and off to the gift shop he went. Where he bought that pair of socks in the picture. The most expensive pair of socks that has ever come in our home. We washed the pair he had on out in the sink, and rotated those two pairs of socks for 9 days at Disney.

As I was doing laundry yesterday, that pair of socks came through the dryer. And I laughed. As I do every time I wash, dry and fold that pair of socks.

That pair of socks reminds me that I have the choice to CHOOSE how I respond in the moment.

Words are powerful gifts to the ones we love. We can deliver them like pretty presents with bows, or we can throw them harshly like blocks knocking down a tower.

We either give grace and build up, or we react and destroy.

That pair of socks reminds me that a moment doesn't have to become a lifetime.

I don't define that trip by the forgotten socks, but rather by the look on the Princess's face the first time she saw Cinderella, and the joy on the Xman's face as he discovered the adventure of roller coasters, or the sight of Sweet Daddy and both kids snuggled up on the bus ride back to our hotel at the end of the day.

Mama Warriors, Proverbs 12:25 says "Worry makes the heart heavy. But a kind word cheers it up."

When our people mess up, they already feel it. They don't need our hateful words to "learn" a lesson. What they need is to be loved where they are, for who they are. To be given grace. To be offered encouragement and support. To be told they are fearfully and wonderfully made and that this mistake does not define them.

Don't let a moment become a lifetime. Choose to build your children up as carefully as a preschooler builds their first tower - with each block carefully chosen, choose your words carefully. Give yourself grace for those moments you weren't the Mom you wanted to be. Don't let a moment become a lifetime.