Last year friends of ours moved away from the city, out of the state and into the beautiful rolling hills near Branson, Mo. Recently my wife and I packed up the tyke to go up and see them and their two children who are also my daughter's age.

The five-hour drive turned into six and a half which is an hour and a half beyond my posterior's comfort zone but we made it and enjoyed a nice evening in the quiet countryside.

The next morning -- after an early unpleasantness with the tyke -- we managed to find some rides our daughter liked at the Silver Dollar City theme park and had a really good time.

I suppose I'm turning into one of those grumpy old men. The frequent shattering outbursts by the kids left me jittery and nervous. On the whole, I felt I'd done a good job of being a good daddy.

And then my wife told me that I had been grumpy, irritable and sarcastic.

For the past three weeks.

We didn't talk much about it that night.

I lay there in the dark and contemplated those words. At first I was angry and felt that she was being totally unfair.

And then I began to consider my words, actions and -- more importantly -- reactions over the timeframe in question. It didn't take long.

I knew with absolute clarity that I had taken the first step on a long path to losing my family.

Once upon a time I had been a master of the sarcastic tone. I had conquered that and felt myself beyond it but,  "like a dog returning to its vomit" I had returned to an old destructive habit.

Over the past year, at my new job, I've worked with a group of very intelligent, and sarcastic, people. I knew that I had -- more than allowed -- actually cultivated the sarcastic tone that I had been taking home and using on my wife. I had become the enemy, to her and to myself.

Ephesians 4:29 tells us  "let no unwholesome speech come out of your mouth but only what is useful for the edification of others".

It's all the worse because this is a verse I memorized years ago and I let my desire to be 'part of the gang' overcome -- not good sense, for men have none of that -- but Godly sense.

The Master spoke and I didn't listen!

I went into work on Monday and told my co-workers that there would be no more sarcasm coming from me. However, just as it took time to begin the habit it will doubtless take time to exculpate it. I asked my co-workers to call me on it if they heard me speaking sarcasm.

My family is more important than anything else in this world and second only to one person who is outside of it.

To be clear this is not a 'if you can't say something good don’t say it' edict, rather it is a 'if you can't say something useful don’t say it' directive.

Do you have any directives for your life? If you don't you can easily fall by the way, lost like a rudderless ship on the ocean.

There is only one rudder that holds. Drop your bible in the ocean of life and steer your way home.

Or your home won't be home anymore.