Out of the overflow

Yesterday while we were driving home from the library, one of our children lost her temper and spoke unkind words to her mommy. I saw a gas station right up ahead, so I pulled into the parking lot. We needed to have a talk. It was a heart issue that couldn't wait until we got home. Her heart had filled up with anger, and it simply overflowed.
I gently repeated to my daughter what she had just said to me,and she dropped her head. She knew it wasn't nice;she immediately apologized, and asked for my forgiveness. I told her that I love her and I forgive her. I explained that I get angry sometimes too, and I have to ask for forgiveness.
"Did you know that Jesus says when our heart overflows, it comes out of our mouth? Do you know what that means?" "Well....no..."
"Overflow means when something gets soooo full, it spills out. If our heart is filled up with joy and love, our mouth speaks kind words. But when our heart is filled up with anger, our mouth speaks mad words. When we get home, I'll show you what Jesus was saying, okay?"
When we got home, the girls followed me into our kitchen. I got out my Bible and I showed them the red words in the book of Matthew where Jesus is speaking about the overflow of our hearts. Then I gave Bella a little empty glass, and I gave Wubs a measuring cup filled with water."Bella, that glass is just like your heart. Wubs, that water will be love and joy, okay? Now start pouring the love and joy into Bella's heart, but don't stop until you've poured all the water."
It didn't take long before Bella's hands were all wet, since the water overflowed from her cup!"Uh oh! Why are Bella's hands all wet?" "Because the cup got too full!" "You're right- the cup overflowed. There was SO much love and joy that Bella's heart overflowed. Now let's play again except this time... Wubs won't have love in her measuring cup. This time the water will be anger and sin. Let's try again."
Of course, the cup overflowed once again. The girls wanted to play one more round, except this time, Wubs wanted to be the 'heart' and Bella wanted to pour the water. So we played again.
"Do you want your heart to be filled up with love and joy so you can have kind words overflowing from your mouth?" "YES!"
"Me too. Do you know how we can fill up our hearts with love and joy? We can read our Bible and fill up our minds and hearts with God's words. Jesus is the only way we can have real love and real joy in our hearts."
I was thankful for this teachable moment with our children. I love it when God reminds me of His Truth through opportunities just like this!
"Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks."- Matthew 12:34b
ps- Nana, thank you for the new jammies!