One totally unanticipated benefit of the monitor, though, is that it makes me a better person. We often have people over at our place--relatives, friends, church folks--and every time I am within voice range of the microphone end of the monitor, I am cognizant that whatever I say will be transmitted crystal clear and without delay to anyone who is in the common area of our house.
There goes the sigh of exasperation I wanted to let out about an early bird party guest eating ALL the guacamole before anyone else had arrived.
There goes the griping and grumping about my spouse that was on the tip of my tongue while chatting on the phone with my sister.
Because errrrrbody can hear whatever I say upstairs in Little Bit's territory.
Now hear me clearly--I am not saying that we should always hold our tongue, never ever venting our frustrations or speaking our minds. We all need a place to speak freely, and women in particular get told to be quiet all too often (I'm looking at you, Paul) for me to stay voluntarily silent just to be nice. But knowing that what I say may travel directly to the ears of the person about whom I'm saying it makes me much more aware of how they'd feel about hearing my words. As a result, it often causes me to be kinder, less gossipy when telling a story, more fair in recounting some dispute, or more gracious when stating a hard truth. In other words, a little more like Jesus.
Here's a thought experiment I've been running lately: what if there were a magical baby monitor that followed us everywhere and automatically transmitted whatever we said about someone directly to that person's ears, no matter where they were? Try it out--if you're like me, you might be surprised to realize you weren't as kind-spoken as you thought you were. But then you might also surprise yourself by how easy it is to find more grace-filled, yet still honest, ways of communicating.
May we all find ways to speak more lovingly of our fellow humans. From my mouth to God's ears, as they say. (Via magical baby monitor, of course.)
*At our request. Turns out that baby monitors these days are like smart phones in terms of how much they do at once--they transmit sound, take pictures, show live video feed, track your baby's heart rate, tell you when she last moved and whether she's still breathing, and probably answer your doorbell and do your taxes.