Words are powerful. Words can be used to tear down or to build up. It's crazy how we can destroy what God is trying to restore with a short conversation. James warns us about our words and there power. He writes no man has tamed the tongue and it is a deadly weapon that can have long lasting effects. You can apologize for what you say but you can never erase the memory and pain that was inflicted when you said it.
In contrast words can edify and restore as well. Words of kindness and love can heal the brokenhearted. Words spoken that are empowered by the Spirit can be used to change the world and bring salvation to the masses. Our words can be used for good or evil depending on the healthiness of our heart. Words testify to what our heart is feeling and the heart, if left to run wild, cannot be trusted.
When I set off on this intentional journey to live a life of celebration and grow closer to Christ as He makes me new everyday, I didn't realize it would be this difficult. Worth wild? Yes. A journey that has cultivated a deeper more passionate love and understanding for my Creator? Most definitely. But as I grow and discover Him and what it means to be His, I see things in myself that I know I need to change and that is difficult. Not because my salvation depends on it, but because if I am going to follow Him and go where He is going then I need to look more like Him and be able to respond to things in life the way He would respond.
Matthew 12:37 the Message version specifically says, "Words are powerful; take them seriously." I have been shown on this journey the extent in which I need to tame my tongue and blanket my heart with peace and perspective. Too often in the heat of the moment or out of tiredness and stress I say words meant to sting or cause despair. Not out of desperation but, if I'm honest with myself, out of the selfish desire to alert others to the stress and craziness I am feeling. I don't want to carry the chaos alone, so at times I will disrupt others and make them privy to what I am feeling.
Whether it be worry, anger, or pity we sometimes want to alert others to what is going on so we can selfishly disrupt their existence and maybe get a little sympathy or at the very least give them a taste of what we are feeling. Maybe if we release some of these emotions with our words, we can feel better and can be internally cleansed. So we expel words and have conversations about our problems in the heat of the moment when our heart is running wild from stress and lack of sleep. We hope the pity party we throw or an added jab of sarcasm will give us peace. Instead it continues the cycle of stress and crazy living so we leave the conversation feeling worse and others around us become unsettled while their joy is taken as a causality of our poorly chosen words.
This weekend when my heart was wild from stress and lack of sleep I had difficulty finding my perspective. I fought hard to discipline myself to have a joyous attitude and as I reflect I selfishly brought people into my chaos and gave them a taste of how I was feeling. Like ripples from a rock thrown into a pond, my words rippled threw the lives of those around me. I want to naively believe others were not aware of my mood and short temper but to do so would deny me the lesson I am gratefully learning from my sin, lack of preparation and perspective.
I made others aware of how much I had going on as I was burdened and stressed by tasks and activities. As I reflect I must ask myself. Did I rob people of their joy when I spoke? Did I use the opportunities God gave me to model Christ and His love? As I examine myself and my conversations, honestly, I am saddened by the reality and what I must admit to myself. Instead of thinking things through and blanketing my wild heart with peace and perspective, I foolishly chose instant relief and opened the door to the possibility I could cause damage to my reputation and my witness. I spoke how I was feeling when I was tired and stressed. I did not think about the possibility that my words and actions could cause harm. Bottom line, I didn't tame my tongue and I allowed my words to flow unchecked.
Can you relate to my situation friends??
As I rock sweet Stella, I think about conversations I have had that I wish I could rewind. I think about wasted opportunities to blanket my heart in peace so that the transformation Christ made in my heart could be seen.
As I ponder my words, I must also ponder my posts. Do my Facebook posts bring joy or am I venting how I feel in the heat of moment and joy is a causality of my newsfeed? Do I air love and wisdom or just dirty laundry on Facebook? Maybe we should read James 3:12 to say, "Can a Christ follower post on their newsfeed words of malice and malcontent? You cannot expect Godly advice and love to come from such a newsfeed."
Friends I am not saying do not confide and ask for prayer when you are struggling, but let's not publicly share anything that cannot bring glory to God or build up the community. We have a responsibility to honor and glorify God in the public arena and it is in these situations that Godly words can be powerful and effective. When people see us live out love in hard times and in times when we should be venting and throwing pity parties we blanket our hearts in peace and perspective the world notices. The Spirit begins to work and move in our relationships.
While sweet Stella snoozes in my arms I celebrate the power words have. I celebrate how God chooses to speak through people to transform families, neighborhoods, communities, and cultures. Something so small can make such a monumental difference if used as an offering to our Heavenly Father. When I bridle my speech and offer my words as an offering to God I will never have to worry about damaging my witness or reputation with words said in the heat of the moment. May I strive for peace,
find perspective when I need it most, and say words that build hope and
joy in the lives of all who hear and read them. Words are powerful, let's take them seriously.
A
bit in the mouth of a horse controls the whole horse. A small rudder on
a huge ship in the hands of a skilled captain sets a course in the face
of the strongest winds. A word out of your mouth may seem of no
account, but it can accomplish nearly anything—or destroy it! It
only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire. A careless or
wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can
ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send
the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from
the pit of hell.
~James 3: 3-6
Thank you Barbara for your realism. I can certainly identify with you on how difficult it is to pause and allow Christ's direction to guide my responses or conversations with others. Pride wants to rob me from doing the will of Christ by kidnapping my heart and (as you said it so beautifully) run wild with pity. Have a week filled with Christ;s incredible love.
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