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My words are ...

Imitated: My daughter's language has progressed from sounds to single syllable words, from words to comments, and lately her comments have turned into conversations. I can tell she understands a bit more of our adult life as she desperately tries to have lengthy conversations with me. Unfortunately she runs out of things to say before she stops speaking so the last few minutes is made-up jibberish while she imitates hands motions, facial expression, and a "this is important" tone.

And it has me wondering... do I do that too?

Unnecessary: I'm sure I speak more than I need to ... more than I should. I get reminders from my 3 year old when my tone changes during a heated discussion with Thom. "Be careful, Mom!" she yells from the other room. "Be gentle with each other!" she warns. I'm thankful for her innocent interjections.

Precise: The benefit of Twitter is that it really makes you minimalize your thoughts and pinpoint what you want to communicate. I often think about taming my tongue ... tweeting has taught me that it is possible to say less more clearly. Now to apply that to my tongue and not just the keyboard. It really starts with taming my thoughts. I want to speak truth and life into my family and others but saying more isn't better. I need to listen more ... inside my head is a soft voice that says, "Be careful, Jacqui, be gentle with others."

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