Consider
Your Words Wisely… In His Word 133 from 2004.
Going through my old files I came across this interesting encouragement to be careful what we say and when we say it! Enjoy!
Day after day we find ourselves thinking about what words we should have used to explain something better, we work at cutting out the words that hurt and find that sometimes we sound just plain sappy! Still, we notice the words we would rather not say slip out and seem to have a mind of their own! How can we find the key to taming our tongue?
Let’s
look In His Word!
Does
not the ear test words as the tongue tastes food? Is not wisdom found among the
aged? Does not long-life bring
understanding? To God belong wisdom and power; counsel and understanding are
His. Job 12:11-13
Your
sin prompts your mouth; you adopt the tongue of the crafty. 6 Your own mouth
condemns you, not mine; your own lips testify against you. Job 15:5-6
Whoever of you loves life and desires to see
many good days, keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking
lies. Turn from evil and do good; seek
peace and pursue it. Psalm 34:12-14
I
said, "I will watch my ways and keep my tongue from sin; I will put a
muzzle on my mouth as long as the wicked are in my presence." But when I was silent and still, not even
saying anything good, my anguish increased. My heart grew hot within me, and as I
meditated, the fire burned; then I spoke with my tongue: Psalm 39:1-3
A
soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. The tongue of the wise uses knowledge
rightly, But the mouth of fools pours forth foolishness. The eyes of the LORD are in every place,
Keeping watch on the evil and the good.
A wholesome tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the
spirit. Proverbs 15:1-4
The lips of the wise disperse knowledge, but
the heart of the fool does not do so. NKJV Proverbs 15:7
Keep
your tongue from evil, And your lips from speaking deceit. Depart from evil and do good; Seek peace and
pursue it. Psalm 34:13-14
How many times have you put your
foot in your mouth because you spoke ‘from the hip’ instead of ‘from the
heart’? I know there have been times in my life when I have not only put my
foot in my mouth but just to be sure I had said the right thing I managed to
fit my thigh in there too!
One
such time I recall, many years ago, I worked at a fast-food restaurant.
As I took a young lady’s order, I
figured her to be in her teens, I noticed the boy with her who looked to be
about ten-twelve years old reached out and paid the money for the food she had
ordered.
Being
a friendly sort I blurted out, “Wow how nice! I wish my little brother would
buy my lunch sometime! How sweet!”
“He’s not my brother…” she responded
rather offended like. “…he’s my son.”
I was shocked and felt like I
was in a hole in the ground at the same time. I heard myself responding in a
way I supposed I thought would help. “Well gee, I sure wish I had a son that
nice ….” I went on from there to firmly plant my thigh in my throat and gag
myself sufficiently. My coworker stood there her mouth agape wondering what on
earth I was doing, and I ran back to the back room to cry and laugh myself
silly.
She
came back and checked on me a few minutes later finding me totally flustered at
my bumbling mouth.
How
embarrassing for me, for her for all of us! What words we could stop if we only
took time to think first!
I
know that woman probably does not even remember it and may even have thought it
was a complement but at the time I was not accustomed to young mothers having
that old of children already! I was shocked; thus I ran on at the mouth with
the wrong thing to say!
It made a lasting impression in my heart
and mind and made me think before commenting even what I thought was a compliment.
We need to be sure we are speaking wise words, not foolish ones!
I have
heard it said that people eat their own words from time to time. I for one want
to be sure that when my words come back at me, they are delicious words of
wisdom and kindness not trash and gunk!
Wisdom
would have done her job and not blurted out a nosey comment, were as
foolishness and trash would have spoken a rash or harmful thing because of quick
speaking and the words would have come back distasteful.
Our words can make or break a
relationship.
Imagine
that you see a new person walking into your church, home, or office. Do you
direct them to a seat or the person they are looking for in a kindly fashion?
Probably so! But what if you did not? What if you just said “What do you want?”
to them? What kind of a first impression would you have made on this person?
Not a
good one that is for sure!
So, we
need to speak the right things from the start! Our words can make someone’s day
go good or bad. Words have been known to damage a person’s life to the point
where they grow up hating others and do harmful things to themselves and
others.
Personally,
I do not want my words to be responsible for a mass murderer, do you?
Oh,
that’s just foolishness! You may be thinking. But it could happen.
Let us look at a word of hurtfulness…
Sally
was hurt by what Fred said, so she told Beth. “He said my picture was like a
child’s.” Beth goes to tell someone else
and it grows: “He said her picture was childish!” That person goes on and it becomes that Fred
thinks Sally is a baby and cannot do anything right! Suddenly all those people
think Fred is a horrible person.
Fred
walks up to a crowd at church and everyone walks away. He does now why and is
hurt. Fred feels like no one loves him in the first place, so he goes home and
hurts himself. All because a hurt was passed on verbally instead of sending it
up to the Lord.
The
real thing that Fred had said was that it looked like a picture of a child.
On the
other side, a word of peace and joy or encouragement can change someone’s life
or even save it!
I
heard about how one day a teen was walking home from school with a huge pile of
books. Another teen offered to help with the load. That one hand reaching out
kept the teen from killing himself that day. He had been bringing home such a
huge pile because it was everything from his locker. He was planning to kill
himself because he felt that no one would care. The boy who offered his words
of encouragement in “Can I help you with that” saved the other boys life!
Though it was years before he would know it.
These
are little stories, but I think the point is coming across that we need to
remember that in all things we do we are affecting other people.
What
comes out of us is what goes in. So, if you are spending your time watching
movies that have cussing in them or hanging with people at work who cuss a lot,
then you will find those words slipping in your speech and even your thought
life! When we hang with people who are negative all the time, we will find
ourselves also speaking down or negative words.
We
need to surround our selves with the Word of God lifting ourselves up in it.
Then spending time with others, for at least part of our week, who are
like-minded and will give us good wisdom to pass on as we speak not faulty
thinking or junky talk. As we dig in the
Word each day, we will fill our hearts and minds with good things that will
come out fresh and anointed by the Lord!
Dear Heavenly Father, help me to
stay in Your Word each day that I may think on those things as I go through my
day and allow good things to come out not bad. Help me to speak wisdom and not
foolishness, healing not hurt… in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Suggested Readings for this
week;
Monday Psalm 39-all
Tuesday: Psalm 52 all
Wednesday: Proverbs 15-all
Thursday: Luke 17:1-10
Friday: James 3-all
Weekend readings: 1 John 3-1 John 4-all
***If
for any reason you choose ever not to receive this devotion again please
remember that all it takes is replying with a "Please remove me from this
list." I do ask that if there is a problem with anything I write for you
to feel free to write me back and let me know what the problem was, that we
might go over it together and seek the truth in love.
In His
love,
Teresa
M. Wilson
www.teresawilson.com
Copyright © 2004
by Teresa M. Wilson.
Rom 8:24-25
For we
were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one
still hope for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we
eagerly wait for it with perseverance.
NKJV