The past couple of days for our homeschooling science/bible adventures we have been talking about the tongue. The tongue is one of the most powerful muscles in our bodies. What I mean by that is that with the words spoken by a tongue, wars can be started...or ended, emotions can be damaged, self esteem can be ruined, dreams can be crushed and it goes on and on.
We tried a couple of things. One experiment we tried was to each brush our teeth well, with a toothpaste that contains sodium laurel sulfate. Then take a quick swig of orange juice. We discovered that two people in our family have the gene that is more sensitive to detecting bitterness than the others. Everyone in the family except Evan and I said, "Tastes like orange juice after brushing your teeth," while Evan and I were spitting and sputtering over the bitter taste in our mouths.
I also had the kids each take a travel sized toothpaste tube and squeeze it out onto a plate. Then I told them I'd give $10 to the first person to get all of the toothpaste back in the tube. I could see right away that Evan might be able to do a pretty good job of it so I added a time limit of 2 minutes as well. The girls had paste toothpaste while Evan had the gel. It was what I had on hand. Evan immediately blew on the end of the tube and started dribbling the gel back in the tube. He did a pretty good job, but not within the 2 minutes and he never did get it ALL back in there.
We talked about how our words are like that. Once we speak them we can't take them back. We can apologize and try to put the toothpaste back in the tube, but when it is all over there is still a mess left behind. I hope my children got the lesson. I know it sure hit me between the eyes. Maybe someday when I grow up I will be better about keeping my mouth shut when I should too.
"So also, the tongue is a small thing, but what enormous damage it can do. A tiny spark can set a great forest on fire." James 3:5
1 comment:
We did that, too, and were the first people to write to Focus on the Family and tell them that our kid got the toothpaste back in the tube.
We also blindfolded the kids and sent them outside one at a time to touch the most powerful weapon in the world. It was a cow's tongue. The tongue is a powerful weapon. They still remember that lesson!
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