My five year old granddaughter has a new "favorite" saying. Whenever something happens she doesn't like, she says her "heart is broken." It is a little drama queen thing and is kind of cute.
But she has to grow out of it. Think about how many adult women have the same drama queen approach to conversation. One of the natural tendencies of women is to use language in a way that seems very dramatic to men. They say their husband "never calls" and "always stays at work" and other such dramatic statements, which are not literally true at all. They do not mean to be exaggerating, because they are really just expressing how they feel at the moment.
Last night, I visited a girl in a hospital, a 2 year old girl, whose heart really was broken. She had holes in her heart which had to be surgically repaired and there have been many complications. She sleeps (under heavy medication) in a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.
Suddenly, my granddaughter's phrase doesn't seem so cute to me. We are often very dramatic in our language because, to be honest, there is not a lot of real drama in our lives. We may say "our heart is broken" because, to be honest, our heart has never actually been broken. We exaggerate little things our spouses do because they have never done anything really bad at all. We reach for exaggerated language to describe common things, to try to make them important.
But this little girl's life is filled with real drama. Her parent's lives are filled with real drama. Her grandparents live with real drama. The PICU is filled with children and parents whose lives are amazingly dramatic.
May God free us from our false drama.
Sometime this week, sit down and think about your life. Think about what is good in your life. Do not think about how one room is a mess or how some things don't work, which are little things. Put aside the whole drama queen thing for a little while and realize how good things have been.
Then, sit down with your husband. Take his arm or his hand and tell him how much you love him. Tell him how glad you are for the life you have together. And then kiss him.
You might be surprised how good it is to take a moment and realize what a great life you really have.
But she has to grow out of it. Think about how many adult women have the same drama queen approach to conversation. One of the natural tendencies of women is to use language in a way that seems very dramatic to men. They say their husband "never calls" and "always stays at work" and other such dramatic statements, which are not literally true at all. They do not mean to be exaggerating, because they are really just expressing how they feel at the moment.
Last night, I visited a girl in a hospital, a 2 year old girl, whose heart really was broken. She had holes in her heart which had to be surgically repaired and there have been many complications. She sleeps (under heavy medication) in a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.
Suddenly, my granddaughter's phrase doesn't seem so cute to me. We are often very dramatic in our language because, to be honest, there is not a lot of real drama in our lives. We may say "our heart is broken" because, to be honest, our heart has never actually been broken. We exaggerate little things our spouses do because they have never done anything really bad at all. We reach for exaggerated language to describe common things, to try to make them important.
But this little girl's life is filled with real drama. Her parent's lives are filled with real drama. Her grandparents live with real drama. The PICU is filled with children and parents whose lives are amazingly dramatic.
May God free us from our false drama.
Sometime this week, sit down and think about your life. Think about what is good in your life. Do not think about how one room is a mess or how some things don't work, which are little things. Put aside the whole drama queen thing for a little while and realize how good things have been.
Then, sit down with your husband. Take his arm or his hand and tell him how much you love him. Tell him how glad you are for the life you have together. And then kiss him.
You might be surprised how good it is to take a moment and realize what a great life you really have.
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