Wash Your Hands!

Wash Your Hands!

My child, pay attention to what I say.Listen carefully to my words.

Proverbs 4:20

In the summer after my first year of teaching, at age forty, the only kinds of trips we could afford to take were car trips. So our blended family hopped in our minivan in Fort Worth, Texas, and headed south along Interstate 35 toward the beautiful rolling hills and wildflowers of the Texas Hill Country.

We rode along for a couple of hours, enjoying the familiar scenery. Then everyone needed a break, so we stopped at a roadside bakery in West, Texas—the name of the town, not the direction we were headed—a Czechoslovakian community known for its delicious and authentic freshly baked kolaches.

When we walked in, the bakery was crowded with at least two dozen people waiting in four different lines to get the famous kolaches. I needed to visit the ladies’ room, but when our five kids got in a couple of different lines, I said to them, apparently in my newly developed “teacher” voice, “Okay, everyone! You need to wash your hands before you get your kolaches!”

At that moment, all the customers in the store got out of their kolache lines and headed for the restroom! Needless to say, I found myself at the end of the restroom line.

So much of the time it seems that people do not listen to our words, but in this case, everyone did! Just as we pay attention to God’s words because they are wise, righteous, and just and will steer us in the right direction, we should also be careful in what we say and in how we say it, because we never really know who may hear us, quote us, or do what we say to do.

—Cynthia Phagan Bittick

Dear Lord, please give me wisdom so that my words help, encourage, and give trustworthy advice to those who listen. And, Lord, please help me to listen more carefully to your words. Through Jesus I pray, amen.