Fault-(finder) Line

 How old is The Child when they cross 'the line' that takes them out of the safety-zone

I wondered yesterday as we oohed and aahed and cuddled and kissed

The Little One who has (gloriously and innocently) not yet crossed 'the line'...

then, still innocently, they do!

And suddenly the 'law of love' seems to change its tone (in some, anyway)

where we are all prone through human nature/aka Adam's curse

 to be guilty at some point in time

of this tone-change...(shame on us)

When do we start with meaner mind

To point fingers with cruel slight

When does the youngster cross the line

That opens them to verbal bite

Is it when they begin to learn

From a teacher none can ignore

Where life is full of twist-and-turn

On roads they never walked before

When are they no longer too young

To be spared from the critic’s grind

Or become fodder for the Tongue

That is untruthful and unkind

When, instead of encouragement

Do they become the scorner’s prize

Where once they gained The Compliment

Now words condemn and criticize

When does the law of love become

More like a cold betrayer’s kiss?

Is it just when they need someone

To remind them, ‘life is like this’

That it is our mistakes and such

That makes us wiser day by day

When, (when they need kindness so much)

 Do they become the gossip’s prey?

How old does someone have to be

To suffer that which none can tame

When they are beyond two or three

Do they start to become fair game?

Tell me, oh, thou of verbal skill

(Where we are all part of God’s choir)

When is the child ‘fit for the kill’

That puts them in Talk's line of fire

© Janet Martin

No one ever grows old enough
to be fit enough for the gossiper's firing squad

 but no human being can tame the tongue.
 It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
James 3:8

 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, 
as God in Christ forgave you.
Eph.4:32