The Power Of Words

We all know that our words can make someone feel loved or hurt someone deeply. Our words are so powerful and many other times we don't understand how powerful they can be. They can be misunderstood, misinterpreted and miscommunicated. Many times when things are misunderstood it's when they are written instead of spoken, even with spoken words they can misunderstood. Solomon even knew this when he said "The tongue has the power of life and death." We need to pay attention and think about the things that we are saying. We need to think of how our words can be taken and whether or not they will show the love of God or not. When people know we are Christians they pay attention to the things we do and say. If our words are hurtful, spiteful and damaging what does that show about us? How would that show non-believers the love and grace of God?

That is why gossip is so hurtful and bad. It doesn't show the glory of God when we repeat things about a person that are not good. Or when you say "I heard" or "Jackie told me that..." and more. When we repeat things that are damaging that we HEARD from someone else or even hurtful things we've seen we damage a person's reputation and take a little bit away from the glory of God. We should be saying good thing, encouraging things about everyone around us, even those that we don't get a long with. When someone starts to gossip we need to simply walk away or say I don't want to hear that. I know I've been talking about gossip alot but it's something that everyone needs to really think about.

We also need to think about what we say to our loved ones. It is our words that can hurt them the most. When we were discussing the twelve steps in sunday school, pastor asked who is the person who's criticism hurts the most and generally it is the person we love the most: a spouse, close friend, or family member. I just finished reading a book called The Five Love Languages and Dr. Chapman said that we need to always be saying words of encouragement to our loved ones and kinds words with a kind tone. We can be so hurtful to someone instead of loving. God doesn't want us to be hurting our fellowman. He wants us to display love and kindness and part doing so is through our words. We can cause life or death with what we say. Think about it.