Oh, My Emotions!

My two-year-old girl  started saying, "Oh, my gosh," and, "Oh, my God." I know we hear it everywhere, but I didn't want her to say words that mean God's name is being taken in vain.

Three weeks later . . . It was interesting to realize that after I corrected my daughter once for "Oh, my God," and "Oh, my gosh," she never said either again. She then began learning to sing, and she picked "Jesus Loves Me" as her first song. 

She also learned to say: 

"Please." 

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

" 'Scuse me."

"I love you." 

So I was grateful that my daughter consistently used her words to be polite.

I've been thinking this topic over, and I realized that we sometimes use meaningless words and phrases like:

"OMG" 

"Wow."  

"Whatever"

"Awesome."
"Really?"

These simple space-fillers express our emotions whenever we don't wait to give those emotions a name. So we blurt out these lame words and rely on tone of voice and facial expressions to communicate the feeling. 

How much better would it be to say: 

"I'm so surprised!"

"I'm mad!"

"I feel disappointed." 

"That just annoys me." 

"I can't believe it!" 

"I don't know what to say."

"What am I supposed to do now?"

Even a two-year-old can learn what her feelings mean, and what to call them. Can you?

"LET THE WORDS OF MY MOUTH AND THE MEDITATION OF MY HEART BE ACCEPTABLE IN THY SIGHT, O LORD, MY STRENGTH AND MY REDEEMER."