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This morning as I was cleaning the kitchen, one line of a song started playing over and over again in my mind. It wasn’t so much the song that was annoying as the repetition. I didn’t really want to stop work to go hunt down an iPod to hook to the speaker system in the living room, so I decided to intentionally force a new song into my head – one that I knew all of the words to and could hum the whole song instead of just one little line.
The first thing to pop in my head was “To God be the Glory.” I started humming it quietly to myself. I couldn’t sing loudly thanks to congestion and a growly voice, so I didn’t figure anyone else would hear me, especially since they were all working in other rooms and the vacuum cleaner was running.
Imagine my surprise when, about an hour later, I heard Olivia singing the same song as she worked. Not only that, but she was being unusually helpful. The child who usually drags her feet in the mornings so she can do the fewest chores possible was actually, this morning, working quicker than both of the others put together. In fact, she finished her work and did part of mine so I could come to the computer and post my challenge before school! All while humming “To God be the Glory.”
Every little thing we do sets a tone for those around us. We mothers have an especially strong power to accomplish this. I have to confess that the annoying one-liner running through my mind was setting a rather edgy tone for my morning. But, as soon as I began running the hymn through my mind, my spirits rose and my chore load felt so much lighter. And that little action – one I thought no one else would notice – was picked up by my precious daughter as well.
If I had asked her, I doubt she would have recognized that my humming put that song into her head. Somehow she just subconsciously picked it up as she moved about her morning. But it was obvious to me that my choice had set the tone.
What if I hadn’t made that choice? How would our morning have progressed?
Our choices set the tone for those around us, whether we like it or not. May we be conscious to make choices that glorify our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and may those choices be contagious!
Not Quite Ordinary 