Have you ever in conversations with people started speaking, and the more you spoke, the more trouble you got into?  For me, it comes naturally.  I get into more trouble accidentally than most can on purpose, and sometimes it is very humorous.  My co-workers have a lot of fun at my expense because I don’t take myself too seriously.  They love to kid me about everything from politics to daily events which happen to me.  I never know what to expect when walking through the door each day.

Once, when I arrived home from work, I found a political sign in my yard.  I wondered who placed it there, because I didn’t.  After thinking about it I figured it was one of my co-workers.  Of course they were ready for me.  They all know where I stand on any given subject without asking.  And sometimes when explaining, my speaking is misinterpreted and the longer I try to explain the worse it gets.  It does make for interesting days, at least on my part.

But sometimes our words can cut a heart.  And then words can build up and heal the same heart.

“A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.”     (Proverbs 25:11)

“A man hath joy by the answer of his mouth:  and a word spoken in due season, how good is it!”       (Proverbs 15:23)

“Two men who had not seen each other in four or five years met at a sales meeting in another state.”  How is your wife?” one of them asked his old friend.

“She’s in heaven,” was the reply.

“Oh, I’m sorry.”  Then he realized that didn’t sound right, so he added, “I mean, I’m glad.”  Now that sounded even worse.  He finally blurted out with, “Well, I’m surprised.”

The choice of words is a masterful art, so much so that colleges give degrees in it.  A word can cut more than a sword or heal more than an ointment.”

Speaking the right word at the right time can change the world.

Hot words inflame human relationships, but cool words never scald a tongue or burn a listener.

Words, words, words.  Sometimes they come by the gallon while the thoughts come by the spoonful.

For words to be fitly spoken they must come from fitly thinking.  Therefore, think before you speak; and if you do, sometimes you may not speak at all.”    ~ Brownlow

May we remember to measure our words before speaking, and better yet to think before we speak.

“Words are free.  It’s how you use them, that may cost you.”     ~ Unknown

Eileen Light