The 5 Letter Word I Won’t Say to My Kids

It comes out in the morning when I’m trying to get my kids to school. I say it in the afternoon after I’ve picked them up and we’re trying to get into the car and home. It slips when they’re getting ready for bed and bed time seems to be approaching quicker than expected.

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HURRY!!!

HURRY!!!!

HURRY!!!!!

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All day long I’m barking and insisting that we need to hurry. Usually, I’m frazzled and frustrated. Usually, they end up frazzled and frustrated. Why does it feel like they move SOOOO SLLOOOWWWW while time swiftly moves at a new record pace each day? Somehow my demands for speed, however only seem to create chaos, increase tension and annihilate peace.

This month I finished reading The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer. An examination into our modern culture of “hurry” and its effects on our emotional and spiritual health, reading the book gave me the opportunity to evaluate my own approach to the daily demands of life. Then the realization came. Had I counted how many times I used the word “hurry” when talking to my kids, I would be too embarrassed to tell you. Not only were my demands for speed not getting us anywhere any faster, they were disheartening and disrupting the peace.

So I decided to stop telling my kids to hurry. Easy right? Not so much. I can’t believe how hard it’s been! Hur…. I mean… ummm… time to go? We have to leave in 2 minutes? I don’t even know what to say! But it’s forced me to stop, slow down and consider what I want to communicate and how I want to communicate it. The message I want to stick hours, days and years later is one that is wrapped with love, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness and self-control.

So, in 2022 I’m banning “HURRY!” from my vocabulary. It’s getting easier. I’m determined. It may mean we have to wake up earlier. Maybe I have to get myself ready sooner. I probably have to lend them a hand when it’s inconvenient. But what if my kids left for school feeling secure and at ease? What if I stopped to look at them with attentiveness rather than anxiety? What connections would we make if there wasn’t a haze of flurry hovering over us? It’s without a doubt worth trying.