I’m journeying toward a yell-free home, but it’s not always how you say something. It’s what you say, too. Words can be powerful.
Have you seen the insurance commercial where Jesse, the cowboy, gets smacked off his horse by the words, The End? He’s riding off into the sunset away from his love (because he’s a loner or chronic wanderer or something, I don’t know) and ends up falling off his horse after hitting his head on the words. The message: words can really hurt you. (I have no idea what it had to do with the insurance company.)
My 2-year old reminded me of the importance of words the other morning.
- [Him: Do we have roller skates?]
- [Me: Where did that question come from?]
- [Him: From my mouth. God gave roller skates to my mouth to say.]
No joke that he said this. It cracked me up and I posted it to my Facebook page. (I wonder if our kids will some day peruse our Facebook posts and be totally embarrassed by what we said about them.)
Anyway, it got me thinking. All things come from God. Our ability to speak. Our mouth to form the words. Our vocal cords to make sound. Our languages. Our brain’s ability to select words to express ourselves. But he does not choose the words for us. In fact, he warns us to choose wisely.
The words of the reckless pierce like swords,
but the tongue of the wise brings healing.
Proverbs 12:18
I can’t bring myself to write on my bible pages, but if I did, I’d scribble next to this scripture a big DANGER sign. I might even add a skull and crossbones – it’s fitting. If this were on a prescription bottle, it would have WARNING written above it. You get my point. He’s truly warning us about how critical it is to take care with our words.
Something else I realized is the 2nd part of the verse does not refer to “words”. It says the “tongue” of the wise. The tongue of the wise could very well mean not to use the tongue at all. Keep silent. In fact, I get that feeling from another verse in Proverbs.
Those who guard their mouths and their tongues,
keep themselves from calamity (out of trouble).
Proverbs 21:23
I ask myself if He would put words in my mouth like, “Why can’t you ever remember to lift the toilet seat? What’s wrong with you!?!”
I think not.
I do hope actions speak louder than words. That my countless kisses and hugs, eyes filled with love, and snuggles at story time latch on to my children’s hearts and souls far stronger than the mistakes I’ve made. But I know words used without care can be truly harmful, and can have just as lasting an effect.
In fact, yelling doesn’t even need to be in the equation. That’s how powerful words all by their little itsy, bitsy selves can be. An unkind word whispered isn’t any better than one shouted. That sounds like it should be a quote, but I think I just came up with that myself. Feel free to use it. 🙂
And once words are out, you can ask for forgiveness, but they can’t be taken back.
Forgive AND forget? Yeah, we’re not so good at that, are we? We normal people here on earth, I mean. When God forgives, it’s gone. Just gone. That’s a hard one to fathom.
But He’s a superior being and has capabilities we can’t understand. When we forgive, there’s a tattered storage unit in our memory that wraps it in newspaper, sticks it in a box, and holds onto it…just in case.
So we must choose our words wisely!
Heart Monitor: Luckily, I didn’t make a poor choice with words today (Day 2), and no yelling. Success again!
P.S. Did you see the bible verses? Yay! I told you that was part of this blog’s objective. Give me five! I also said I’d be honest. I do not know the bible well enough to pull scripture at random, but I remembered something about words cutting like a knife. I searched the good ol’ web to find what I was looking for, but I DID also make sure I actually read it and the verses around it from my bible pages! Remember, baby steps.
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