Day 25 of My Lenten Journey

25.  Destructive Speech

"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me."

It's a saying we heard and maybe said time and time again growing up on the playground.  But, the fact is we have all been hurt by words.  Those words come from our mouths and tongues and words DO hurt.  Maybe even more so than any other part of our bodies we could use.  The Bible even speaks of the tongues as a sword.

They sharpen their tongues like swords and aim cruel words like deadly arrows.  Psalm 64:3

Thanks to Psalty the Singing Songbook cassette tapes, one of the bible verses I remember learning early in my life was:  Keep thy tongue from evil.  Psalm 34:14. That pretty much sums it up.  If your ears were to hear it and your heart be hurt, just don't say it at all.

The soothing tongue is a tree of life, but a perverse tongue crushes the spirit.  Proverbs 15:4

Think about how many words are thrown around these days compared to even just 100 years ago. We have so many more ways to communicate.  It's not just actual talking.  We have the internet, blogs, social media, and texting.  We really have to guard ourselves by asking: "Does this build up and encourage?  Is this constructive and helpful?  Or am I being destructive and harmful?"  That's a tough row to hoe every time you go to speak, but we can at least start by things we type.  I can't tell you how many times I have typed a text or a status and then deleted it knowing it was destructive or harmful.  Now, I need to work on the everyday tongue part, as Paul tells us in his letter to the Thessalonians.

Therefore encourage one another with these words.  1 Thessalonians 4:18
Therefore encourage one another and build each other up. 1 Thessalonians 5:11