Never Put It in Writing

The hardest lessons learned, though, were not through housework or schoolwork. "I think you've learned a good lesson," were words I heard from my mother when struggling with unpleasant heartwork.

My sisters seemed to go through their rebellious stages at the same time and sometimes asked me to make requests for them. Once, in response to one of my sisters' difficulties, I'd written a letter of intercession and gotten myself in scalding hot water with Daddy.

I was only trying to help, I thought, and I'm the one who got in trouble.... Confused and hurt, I sought refuge under my bed and cried until my face was puffy. Mother came into the room, sat down on the bed, and told me to come out. I came out, buried my face in her lap, and sobbed.

"I think you've learned a very important lesson, " she said. And what she said after that I never forgot. "Never put in WRITING what you cannot afford to have misunderstood." It's one thing to think it, another to even speak it, but never, never put it down on paper, she said.

It made sense. And often, Mother's words simply made a difficult situation easier to swallow.



...Now, don't ask me what I'm doing blogging, putting a lot of things in print!