Words

So i was going to post about my scary experience at the scary house but since everyone now seems to know the story i will post about something God laid on my heart this weekend.

Remeber that saying "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me" ?

Throughout my lifetime i find more and more for that quote to be misleading.....

Words can be great sometimes because it can be something that gives you encouragement, They can be comforting in times of need, they push you to suceed, helps to achieve something you want, and aids us when we need help BUT i have learned that words can be hurtful sometimes, mean, rude,and crude without even knowing. This weekend when Troy was speaking of conflict even though he was speaking about it in a marriage conflict i began to think of myself and how i agrue with people...my friends, family, and previous roommates....and realized a few things. Words are powerful! I think more than ever i have realized this being in school and studying marriage and family therapy! One word can break up a whole marriage, one word can cause a family to be divided, one word can cause a marriage to reunite and it goes on and on our words have a powerful impact on others! When Troy was reading out of Colossians he read all the things you should put on when argueing all of them were wonderful and i hope to practice them in my next arguement but one really stuck out to me that i can use always and thats gentleness.

I love trying to be funny! i love making jokes but sometimes i do it at the expanse of others. At first i thought it was funny not even thinking of how my words may be affecting the person but than i started thinking that even in jest and fun our words hurt people and can come off not very gentle and you never know how they will affect others even in a joke, or when speaking to someone in "love" or when they aren't around (rumors and gossip) they can make or break a person. After hearing Troys message i realized that the answer is gentleness! I would want someone to use gentle words on me or when talking about me so i should remeber to practice gentleness with my words! Think before i speak rather than speak get a fun laugh and have a aftershocks. I feel to many times we forget how strong our tongue is, we forget how our tongue is a double edge sword i mean it talks about it in the bible, we forget with our tongue we can tell someone we love them but in our next sentence tear them down and why why would we do such a thing!?! is it that were malicious and evil? Or that we want to break the person down we love? No i think its that sometimes we forget that our words our powerful. We speak rather than think of how this may affect someone. We forget that gentleness should be a big part of words. There is a time to be bold and use our tongue for correction but even that should be done with the most sensitivity and gentleness. People are watching and listening and our words can affect how they view the kingdom. We should be building one another up not breaking them down. We should be using our words to encourage and love.

It can be struggle sometimes because it actually means thinking of others before ourselves! I want to be a women known as with gentle words and ones that build up and comfort. I want to be person that realizes my words are powerful!