If you were to break a glass window, how careful would you be if you stuck your arm through it? I would suspect very cautious and you might decide to not even reach through. Whatever you were trying to reach for might not be worth the risk of injury. Aren't our words just as dangerous?
What if our tongues were as carefully used? Sometimes we literally bite our tongues because we get in too big of a hurry while we are eating or talking. Can you imagine a glass tongue and how cut up our mouths would be or how much slower we would be to speak? Words can have a crumbling effect, just like shattered glass. I like the analogy of words being like nails in a fence, you can take them back but they still leave holes in the boards.
Our words can unite us or scatter us, just like the people at the Tower of Babel. ''That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.'' Our words should be clear, whether it be to praise or to correct. 'A word of encouragement after a failure is worth more than an hour of praise after success.'
May your words today be carefully given with discernment and be a building block of encouragement to others. You don't have to say everything you think either... just sayin'.
Probably causes more problems in and out of the church than anything else.
ReplyDelete"Slow to speak, quick to listen, and slow to get angry." If only we would heed the words of James in the Scripture, then those words that CAN and often DO harm us would stay somewhere back in the recesses of our brains. Oh, conviction, conviction!
ReplyDeleteSome things we do not need to say at all, and some things we cannot say enough. Discernment!!! We can never be reminded too often about that little tongue that is very small, yet dangerous enough to break a heart. The spoken word....one of the things that can never be taken back. Oh, we can apologize and ask forgiveness, but the damage is done and hard to forget. Our mothers were right on when they told us, "If you can't say something nice, then don't say anything at all." And you are right on....."A word of encouragement for a failure is worth far more than hours of praise for success." That tongue of glass would not only cut up our mouths, but it would cut to the very core of others. Praying for sweeter, kinder words and a non-bleeding tongue! Love you, T.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good analogy....I'll have to keep thinking of my tongue as glass.....
ReplyDeleteMary