…Cut Or Heal?

S:

Proverbs 15:4

4  Kind words heal and help;

 cutting words wound and maim.

(Message)

O:

The tongue is one of the strongest muscles in the human body; not that it can lift anything, or push anything, but can be used to do the most damage or the most good.

A: We all have them I think, those little snap shots from when we were young…those little “clear as crystal” snippets of time when we can still hear, smell, taste and see everything about a specific little scenario when we were children. Someone said something to us. It may have been a praise that made us grin from ear-to-ear and made us feel nine feet tall and invincible. We were praised for something that we had done, someone had noticed and complimented on our wit, or cunning, or bravery, and it just hit us the right way and seared itself into our memory.

Or it may have been the exact opposite. We were chastised or punished or scolded for something we said or did. It might have been a foolishly daring activity that could have gotten us hurt (or worse…but didn’t), and we are reprimanded by someone in front of our friends, and that little snapshot is seared into our brains just the same as the proud one.

Or it may be our own tongue that got us into trouble in a split second before we engaged our brain to think through the ramifications of what we were saying on those around us. I am sure if you are reading this, we all have a picture of each of those situations in our memories, even as we are reading.

How often do we become so comfortable with our spouse, that we are constantly saying the first thing that comes into our head, and because of our human nature, it is more often than not, something that only serves to belittle, or ridicule, or chastise our spouse, because it is always the little things, the things that remind us of what we don’t like about ourselves, that we are the quickest to pick out and brand when we see it from our spouse. We would likely change our tactics if we were to remember that all too often, it will be someone of the opposite sex to our spouse who is going to be only too eager to support and encourage and defend their activities/actions/thinking. No one keeps coming back to the source of their wounds so that they can keep getting cut. Eventually, enough cutting words will only shut your spouse down and send them into their own secluded little world, or send them into the kind healing words of someone outside your marriage.

The tongue can be one wicked instrument or one of the sweetest sounds that your spouse can hear, and you have that decision to make every time you think about speaking.

P:

Lord, help us to slow ourselves down, so that we can better consider our words and how they will help or hinder our marriage relationship. Amen.