Pastor/Minister/Bishop in the Wings?

Our eldest son is a very sensitive soul. Don't get me wrong when you read that. He can hold his own in a brawl with his brothers and rarely, if ever, cries for reasons that aren't physically-related.

But approach him with a sweet thought or kind word and you might just reduce him to a pile of tears and redness. He's also a stickler for how you use the Queen's English and isn't afraid to use his large vocabulary or spelling knowledge to reduce you back to second grade. I love that about him!

So, our sensitive son was riding in the car with his Dad the other day. As Mike is prone to do, he was reading SS the riot act over something he had done. The issue at hand has been a reoccurring problem, so the conversation went like this:

"How many times are we going to discuss this problem? It's become habitual."

"DAD!!"

"Don't interrupt me! This must stop. Do you understand? When a problem becomes habitual.."

"DAD. Stop." Tears start welling up in son's eyes.

"Why do you keep interrupting me?"

"It's your language."

"MY language?" Mike was lost. Beyond the people on the island, Lost.

"That word you keep using. It's cussing." Son just can't believe his Father would speak like this in front of him.

Mike is still in another time zone. "I'm sorry. I just don't know WHAT you are talking about."

"That word. Ha BITCH ual. That's cussing." Tears welling up again.

(HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA*)

After a brief discussion about the root of the word "habitual"**, a swipe of the eyes with balled-up fists, and a couple more seconds of "AH HAs", life was back to normal.

But now we are wondering what other cuss words are waiting to spring forth from the tongue-lashings our little man of God is, no doubt, going to receive in the upcoming years.

I ASSume there will be something issuing from our mouths that will come back to haunt us in the very near future.



*That's God laughing at Mike (and, in essence, me) for thinking we could be parents.

**Which Mike, the Mathematician extraordinaire and self-proclaimed vocabulary-ne'er-do-well, actually managed to handle like a pro.