The Taste of Mud Pies

How many of you remember what mud pies tasted like?  No, really, … you never ate them?  Well, I was a country girl, born in the post-war 40’s into a self-reliant middle class family, and I guess there just wasn’t much to do.  Inventiveness was high on the list of activities.    I rode in the apple-crate express train in the backyard to nowhere.  So, it wasn’t a far stretch to use whatever else was handy to pass away the long, lonely hours in a three-year-old’s day. 

Probably the handiest thing in our environment was dirt.  I didn’t have all of those fancy pint-sized kitchens you can buy these days for kids.  I just had a set of wooden steps at the back door and lots of dirt underneath.  It wasn’t a far stretch to figure out that dirt combined with water sort of stuck together.   After watching my mother roll out cookie dough into little balls with her hands, it was only logical that the little dirt balls made by my little hands would wind up in my little mouth.

 (Picture courtesy of http://www.joanrieveley.com/gallery_1.htm) 

I can still remember the taste.  Dirt at our south Alabama house was mostly red clay—heavy on the iron content—and it had a distinctly metallic taste.  Kind of grainy in texture, but all-in-all, not too bad.   I don’t know how many dirt ‘cookies’ I ate in my lifetime, but my habit was cut short the weekend my Daddy caught me at my porch steps ‘kitchen’ partaking of my latest batch.

For some reason, he didn’t take too kindly to my budding culinary talents.  It was off to the backyard water faucet with me slung under his arm.  I remember there was this taste of soap and a whole lot of water in my mouth.  It must have traumatized me sufficiently because I don’t think I ever ate mud pies again (or mud cookies, either).  

What does this anecdote (all true) about consuming soil have to do with words, you might be wondering?  Well, dirty mouths for one thing.  What (besides real dirt) can make our mouths dirty?  Oh, you are so quick!  And correct.  Unclean words.

So what? You say.  Sticks and stones (blah, blah, blah)…but words can never hurt me.  Oh, really?  We know better now, don’t we?  We’ve seen the stories about the consequences of bullying—both in person and in cyber-world.  

Ever heard of Angola Prison?  The nation’s largest maximum security prison…and until recently having the reputation as the bloodiest prison in America.  I was intrigued by a recent magazine article that told about how much the prison environment at Angola had changed for the better after the new warden, Burl Cain, began looking for ways to bring order and morality to the violent, chaotic world of Angola.  One of the edicts he put in place was a prohibition against profanity, beginning with the correction officers.  According to Cain, “that simple rule had a major positive impact on inmate-guard relationships as well as on the prison society at large.”  He explained “that cursing sets the stage for violence, while clean language fosters respect.” 1

I was blessed that I never, and I mean never, heard curse words or unkind words spoken by either of my parents.  (Kind of made the whole ‘washing my mouth out with soup’ thing easier to bear.)  Wish I could say I only spoke good, kind words, but God might have to wash my mouth out for lying.  Many are the words I wish I could take back.  And I’ve had to eat more of them than there are clods of dirt in that Alabama back yard.  

I don’t want to go all preachy here, but the Bible really is full of words about words.  Some of the most sobering are these from the lips of Jesus:  “But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.” (Matthew 12:36)  His half-brother, James, famously devotes a whole chapter to ‘tongue-control’ issues (James 3) and hits the nail squarely on its proverbial head.   “But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison,” he declares, along with many other choice words about words.

So, whatever will we of dirty and unkind mouths do?  We, who have already eaten the mud pies?

We need our mouths (and minds) washed out.  Jesus also said, “…what people say with their mouths comes from the way they think; these are the things that make people unclean.”  (Matthew 15:18 NCV)

But what kind of soap can handle the ‘dirty’ and deadly poison of words?  It appears that the Word Himself has the soap and will do the washing (if we allow it).    “…Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.”  (Ephesians 5:25-27). 

Do you think maybe the world would be a nicer place if we all cleaned up our mouths?  If it works that well for as foul a place as Angola, maybe so.  Maybe we all should allow ourselves to be turned upside down under the faucet of God's words.  Worth a try.

That's it for today from the Soapbox.  Oh, and btw, the main reason you don't want to eat mud pies?  You get worms.
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1 Rusty Benson. "Dead Men Living". American Family Association Journal. November 2011