The applicable simplicity of the Bible....

"Train up a child in the way he should go. When he is old he’ll not depart from it" Proverbs 22:6

I remember when my parents would randomly call their children (us) names (insults, or even true but hurtful words)... Like "you’re foolish" (in Igbo) when we act foolishly, etcetera etcetera...

As we grew, they could tell that those words were beginning to hurt. I was 8 at the time, and recall crying when my mum gave me insults while passing out corrections... It was at those periods I noticed the decline.

They would also rebuke us when we tried to insult ourselves. Of course they had to control themselves as well. My elder siblings and I were turning teens and you know how much teens can drive one nuts...

I don’t know what they saw, perhaps they stumbled on this scripture and didn’t want to grow children vile tongues. But they stopped, they consciously stopped the name calling.

And blessed us instead.

Even today, it's difficult for me to "jokingly throw" insults.

Thanks to my current environment (for the past 4 months), it poses a challenge to resist the temptation to let out foul language. But I want to train by kids this way as well, so each day I rest on the Lord’s help to teach patience.

PS: While the Holy Spirit works on my humility index, I think His job was easier when it came to smoothening my choice of words.