Yelling Epiphany

Naki and I had quite the epiphany lately. It wasn't a pretty one. But I am so super grateful that we were in the position to receive and experience it. It suddenly became apparent to us that the tone of voice we used with the kids that you usually reserve for extreme situations, like, say, your house is on fire! or something along those lines, was the tone we used the most. Not okay and not good at all. Duh. No wonder we were struggling so much with the way the girlies were speaking to each other. They were being modeled the perfect way to NOT speak to your family that you love and adore. So we took extreme measures and taped our mouths shut. Just kidding. But sometimes it takes everything I have to speak calmly and not blow steam out of my ears when I've called the same person's name 50 times and still without a response. But already we've seen a difference. It just feels more peaceful around here. The night we got home from our Family Reunion was somewhat stressful. Just a bunch of tired kiddos and a lot of work ahead of us...not always a peaceful situation. Plus we were accidentally locked out of the house with several people about to pee their pants! But I knew that we were working succesfully towards our goal when after all was said and done and it still felt so calm and warm, that Lose came to me and asked if we could read a scripture together before we went to sleep that night. I hope that we can keep getting better and better at this because it just feels a bit more like heaven around here, even if I have to tape my mouth shut sometimes.