Of Tempers and Toothpaste

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We are running late.

She’s still in the bathroom. Door closed. Dawdling, I’m sure.

I knock gently and turn the knob.

Not.

I barge in just in time to catch tongue against tip of toothpaste tube.

I smile sweetly. “What are you doing?”

Not!

I yell. “WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?”

I take the tube from her hands and toss it into the wastebasket.

Not.

I snatch it and hurl it into the bathtub. I later retrieve it and toss it into the wastebasket.

“What are you doing?” I ask again. Softer. Sort of.

“Getting toothpaste to brush my teeth.”

“You don’t lick toothpaste from the tube. You spread it on your brush. I can’t use this now. It’s full of all your morning breath. Nasty. Now I have to buy more.”

My own grandmother’s words come back to me.

“I don’t understand how your breath could smell so bad when you brush your teeth all the time.”

Words stick. And stay.

And I feel like nasty morning breath.

(I also think briefly of the story about the wife who was so (passively) angry with her husband she’d swish his toothbrush in the toilet in the mornings.)

Only minutes later this quote rolls across my computer screen.

You cannot be too gentle, too kind. Shun even to appear harsh in your treatment of each other. Joy, radiant joy, streams from the face of one who gives and kindles joy in the heart of one who receives. ~ St. Seraphim of Sarov

Ouch.

I was far from gentle.

Far from kind in correcting.

I did not kindle joy.

And then in Bible study after I drop her off at school.

This from the Message.

Parents, don’t come down too hard on your children or you’ll crush their spirits. ~Colossians 3:21

I suppose that applies to grandmothers, too.

And then, as if that’s not enough, from the NIV.

My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. ~James 1:19-20

I get it already.

Again.

It’s pretty clear that I jumped into yesterday’s filthy set of ill-fitting clothes this morning.

I should have, instead, taken time to dress in the wardrobe God picked out for me.

How about you? What are you wearing today?

 

P.S. Later my husband corrects me. I could have simply wiped the tube off. I knew he’d say that. He’s known for retrieving food from the garbage. I was careful to bury it under wads of used tissue.

By Sandra Heska King

So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it. ~Colossians 3:12-14 (Message)

Stephanie Shott
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