I had a little girl this morning come to me in tears.  When I asked her what was wrong, she told me her sister had been ugly to her and called her a name.  I hugged her and told her she should not have said ugly words to her, and that the words were not true in the first place.  She stopped crying, and was consoled, but the words will still live on in her heart.  How very careful we need to be not to wound nor mar another’s heart.  We say things in a heated argument, in a rush to get somewhere, and become impatient, and before we know it the words are said, and cannot be called back.

“Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things.  Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth!  And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity:  so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature;  and it is set on fire of hell.  For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind:  but the tongue can no man tame;  it is an unruly evil, full of *deadly poison*.”
James 3:5-8

“Be careful of words that come out of your mouth, it may be something too hurtful to leave someone’s mind.”

Words can build up, edify, heal, console a person, but they also have the ability to wound, and wound deeply another’s heart.  So many times during a week I hear these same stories.  My co-worker told me of how her step-father had hurt her through thoughtless, careless words.  Those words have lived on in her heart all this time.  That is how powerful words can be.  I am amazed by that.  Long after presents are given, the words that we said to one another are remembered.  All the more urgency to edify one another.

“Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.”     Ephesians 4:29

“Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.  And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labour among you, and re over you in the Lord, and admonish you;  And to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake.  And be at peace among yourelves.”   I Thessalonians 5:11-13

… and then the nurse told me that she was ignored by some upon her graduation from nursing school.  She told me that they hurt her by being silent, and not congratulating her.  Silence can also wound a heart.  I told her that perhaps they had not gotten her messages yet, and she may hear from them, but there is the other case, they were envious of her perhaps,  and yes, silence has a way of wounding another’s heart too, if the silence goes on too long.

“You can break a heart without even saying a word, because that’s exactly what they didn’t want to hear – silence.”

Words, words, words.  When we read God’s Word, we are reading His mind.  His Word instructs us, has Words of wisdom, consoles those that are hurting.  We miss so much of His aid and comfort, instruction for life’s problems when we don’t read and study His Words.  Words of life.

“Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.”     Proverbs 16:24

“Then Simon Peter answereth Him, Lord, to whom shall we go?  Thou hast the Words of eternal life.”   John 6:68

“Be careful what you say.  You can say something hurtful in ten seconds, but ten years later, the wounds are still there.”

Eileen Light