Eliza Jane is three. She was walking in the hallway at PTP, a large conference for Christians. Her mom introduced her to this new friend, who is in her late forties. They exchanged nice pleasantries and then this lady said “Oh my gosh!”— exclaiming about some great speaker or good food, or something.
Eliza Jane looked at her with big mortified eyes and said “Mrs. Jenny, we do not say ‘oh my gosh’”!
I think Mrs Jenny was mortified, too. She has since worked harder than anyone I’ve ever seen to stop saying that phrase. Now you have to know Mrs. Jenny. She was in the military in her pre-Christianity days. She’s worked hard to put down lots of baggage that the devil likes for us to carry. There are some pretty exhausting addictions that Jenny has conquered. But Mrs. Jenny was so kind to Eliza, assuring her that she would work hard to eliminate “Oh my gosh” from her vocabulary. Eliza even offered her some phrases that we can say instead of the offending one.
Fast forward to last week, when Mrs. Jenny visited our services at West Huntsville. Eliza Jane went to her and got the report that she had, indeed, kicked the “oh my gosh” habit. Eliza gave her a high five and a thumbs up and said “I’m so pwoud of you.” Then, in a clearly empathetic tone, she added “I used to say ‘oh my gosh’ when I was a baby, too.”
Eliza, the speech police in the halls of PTP, did decide to try the phrase once more in the living room of their home. I heard her say it pretty emphatically, so I walked in there and said “Eliza! Did you say ‘oh my gosh’ What are you thinking?”
“Well, I was just saying it to the cat. I thought it might not be wrong to say it to a cat.”
Take-aways:
1. Little people can do big things.
2. Everyone needs to be a little more like Mrs. Jenny.
3. Children have a sweet and innocent perspective about sin.
4. We should express encouragement when Christians grow.
5. We should admit our own faults, being real and humble with people.
6. It is wrong to say it to the cat.
