As we are approaching the weekend, I wonder how we are doing with the words we speak and how we speak them? I wonder if we are stepping outside of our comfort zones to connect and work on cultivating new connections?
On the political, media front, not much has changed and the rhetoric displayed by many can cause us to become fatigued.
We know that this Covid Virus has and continues to create fatigue as so much of what we know and how we know it has been spun upside down with a few milkshake twists to boot.
But….. Because our words matter much, what we say and how we say things are a big deal because as we know, the Words we speak have power.
Forward Friday is about Words and they do matter.
Life and death comes from the words we speak so speaking wisely should be a belief for all of us to keep.
We’ll mess up from time to time but it is the intentional movement forward to be better with our words that matters and dare I say the spirit of what we say is just as important because we do pick up the vibes, good bad or otherwise.
I have been thinking about Words a lot lately and as I was going through some of mom’s keepsakes, a heavily highlighted paper fell to the floor.
It was something that mom years ago had been studying and working on.
See if it doesn’t resonate in some way shape or form with you.
Did you know: Abraham Lincoln’s coffin was pried open on more than one occasion?
Once in 1887, 22 years after his assassination. Why? It was not to determine if he had died of a bullet fired from John Wilkes Booth’s gun.
Then why? Because words and rumors swept the country that his coffin was empty.
A group of select witnesses observed that the words/rumor was totally false, then watched as the casket was resealed with lead.
14 years later, the martyred man’s withered body was viewed again; this time by even more witnesses for the same grim purpose!
Finally, the corpse was permanently embedded in a crypt in Springfield, Illinois.
Rumors/words can be cruel. What is lacked with authoritative facts and direct sources, information becomes loose, and it is the hotbed for unrest, fear and harm.
So it is no surprise that God sets out many thoughts about words and the importance of what and how we speak.
Here’s one: Let everything we say be good and helpful, so that our words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.
That tongue of ours can pry open more caskets, expose more closet skeletons and stir up more toxic, scandalous dust than any other tool on the face of this earth.
So here are a few helpers to help us be better when it comes to the words we speak, hear and listen to.
It may be high time to stop listening to those who seem to use words to damage, hurt others; those that oppose their way of thinking.
We should be quick to put ourselves in that category too if we’ve been doing the same.
The Mill of caustic, belligerent words should stop with us first but I think we should also become bold enough to not allow others to, in our presence spread idle talk, “venom speak”, spew out hurtful and harmful words without some push back.
Our feelings can't rule us so it needs to be a part of us that we will not allow cryptic, shallow, mean spirited talk based on feelings be spoken in our presence without the facts to back it up. The truth of anything is rarely veiled but it should go without saying that even with the facts in any matter, mean spirited talk should “Not” be our guide.
My ears do not need any more garbage than hits the eardrums every day that I have little or no control over. The approach for the strong is to be able to say that we do not appreciate hearing cryptic/harsh words etc.
So…. I have to live this out this summer so it’s not anything that I’m not having to practice. Let’s just say that my summer work has me around some interesting folk. There have been a few times where there’s a part of me that would like to say a whole lot of things…..
My mind keeps hinging back to, “Are you/Dave a person that speaks grace and encourages or do I slip into the ranks of the caustic/acidic/biting/unkind?
I often pause to reflect on my words and what I’m thinking so I don’t say something I’d regret or have to apologize for needlessly because I didn’t put my brain into action before the feelings got the better of me.
What we say matters to those around us and I especially believe that God who knows all, sees all and He definitely hears it all too.
In this very acerbic, volatile time we are living in, it would do us well to be a little more graceful, less mean spirited and just because we have a position on something doesn’t make us right; it just means we have an opinion.
But if that opinion causes us to do harm with our words, our actions, creates divides, cancelling, acid like with our comments and attitudes, well then we should maybe take a break from our “Side” and evaluate the measure, breath and consequences of our words.
After all, we don’t need to stir up contaminates with the words we speak…
If we don’t see the need for personal change and accountability for our words and how we speak them, should we expect them from anyone else?
Our Words Matter; We All Can Be Better!
I’m trying; will you?
Dave
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