It Said . . .

The museum curator repeated himself, “Preach to the eyes, not just the ears.” He noted the daily lesson a child could get, without the parent even saying a word, if the child looked at a mural painted above the window of the Tree of Life as he ate his bowl of cereal.  The curator encouraged us to let the things we use in our homes serve the dual purpose of beautifying as well as teaching a message of our values.

When the curator said it, I thought of several things that hung on the kitchen wall when I was a little girl. There was a wooden plaque with a picture of a cowboy and the quote, “Be careful of the words you say, keep them soft and sweet. You never know from day to day which ones you’ll have to eat.” I wasn’t exactly sure what it meant, but I vowed that day that I was never going to use the sh-- word . . . just in case.

Next to that plaque was a quote board Aunt Idon made us for Christmas. (She was a repurpos-er. She knitted all ten of us kids nose-warmers and glued carpet scraps in a quilt pattern to her basement floor until it was wall-to-wall carpet.) Aunt Idon made the quote board from a hymn number holder in the front of the chapel, and Uncle Ernest attached a gold chain to the top of it so it would hang. Aunt Idon wrote several quotes in her best calligraphy and we slid those quotes in and out just like the chorister did with the hymn numbers. “PLAN AHEAd” was one message. The “d” was barely squeezed on the page. It certainly gave Luke 14:28-32   more meaning when I read it later in life.

Down the wall from the quote holder was the “little table.” When it was latched in place it looked like a bulletin board, but when it was unlatched it came down into a small table for children. For years and years I stared at the quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson, “What you are thunders so loud in my ears I cannot hear what you say,” that hung on the little table.

Words of wisdom. One-liners that I've read over and over and pop into my head at will.  Sentences that have taught me truths and made my life better. For the next month I’ll be sharing them here on the blog in the 31 Day Writing Challenge hosted by Myquillyn Smith.  I hope you'll enjoy them.


October 1 - It said . . . 
October 2 - Charity Never Faileth

October 3 - Palindrome, Palindrome Backwards the Same
October 4 - There, But For the Grace of God, Go I
October 5 - It Is Better to Build Boys Than to Repair Men

October 6 - Use it Up, Wear it Out.  Make It Do or Do Without.
October 7 - Either Put Up or Shut Up
October 8 - Be Still
October 13 - It Takes a Heap of Livin'
October 14 - The Family is God's Masterpiece
October 15 - I'm in a Hurry to Get Things Done ♬
October 16 - Double Double Toil and Trouble

October 17 - A Man Can't Love a Woman More Than That
October 18 - And We Call It Our Get the Work Done Day
October 20 - "Honey, Ve Gonna Kill 'Em Vith Kindness"
October 22 - Mutual Respect
October 29 - Wing Beneath My Wings
October 31 - Become As a Little Child