February 8 - A Gift Broken, Fixed and Thrifted

I was fed up.

Desperate.

The boys were not getting along.

How they spoke to each other was so wrong...
so wrong.

So I got creative.

Radical.

Crazy.

The idea could have been
a gift from God.

I had once purchased a beautiful gravy boat
found at a local thrift store.
(Expensive china for a great deal.)
It was not part of a set,
it was single.

It was different - but even prettier - than this one.

After dinner was over, we cleared the table.

I told the boys to sit back down 

and wait for just one moment.

I went and retrieved the vintage gravy boat

and set it on a towel, on the table before their eyes.

I'm sure I said something like...

"Isn't it a beauty? 

It's worth a lot of money, you know,

because it's an antique. 

I only have one like it.

And I love it."

I can be a real china diva... 

my sons knew my weakness for beautiful dishes - 

often 2 or 3 sets were available 

for different occasions.

They looked expensive, but weren't, after all.

Then I took a towel and

covered the bowl completely...

I gave them a hammer,
one at a time,
and told them to have at it.

"Go ahead, break it, I said."

They were very reluctant.
I had to coax them to do it.

When it was all done,
broken china embedded deep into 
the threads of the towel,
gone from a bowl to a spread of shards...
I said to them...
with eyes a tad teary...

"This is what your words can do to a soul.
This is what can happen to the heart of your brother
if you don't control your tongue.
We are fragile boys,
we are all fragile.

And words hurt... 

words hurt.

I do believe that fixed the "bad mouthing" situation...
at least for a while.

And I was happy to do it,
for what matters more...

a bowl 

or a soul?