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Short Stories (Stories for the Youth), book by Father Tadros Yacoub Malaty

256- Wash your Mouth

 

St-Takla.org Image: A mother with an angry boy, sad, mutiny - by Amgad Wadea. صورة في موقع الأنبا تكلا: أم مع طفل غاضب، حزين، تمرد - رسم أمجد وديع.

While attending a young lady’s funeral, I sat with her father who said to me, “My mother died when I was six. Seventy years have passed; yet, I can never forget her. I live with what she had taught me. I’ll tell you a story. When I was a young boy, I was walking home with my elder brother when I heard a boy saying a very bad word to his friend. I didn’t understand the word and I decided to ask my mother what it meant. She asked if my brother was the one who said that word but I explained the situation. She then took me to the bathroom and gave me a bar of soap. She poured water in my hands saying, “Wash your mouth so that the bad word would not stick to it.” She made me repeat washing my hands five times to make sure that my mouth was cleaned and that I would not say that word again. Until today I never utter a bad word lest it should stick to my mouth and make me impure.”

→ English translation of the story here at St-Takla.org: اغسل فمك!

Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth.

Keep watch over the door of my lips.

Wash my inner mouth with hyssop and I shall be clean.

 Put Your words in my mouth.

So that there would be no place except for sacred words.

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