“Whoever said sticks
and stones may break your bones, but words will never hurt you,” was
wrong.
If we have learned anything this
week it is that words can bite you. From
a long-bearded Louisianan to a jet-set PR exec, we can learn a valuable lesson
about watching what you say.
No matter which side of the “issues” you stand on, the truth
is what you say can hurt you. The
Apostle Paul said “If I speak in the tongues of men and of
angels, but I do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” Have you ever banged a gong? It is noisy.
It demands you hear it. Once it
is hit, it is hard to ignore.
Words are
like that.
Any words, no matter if they
are truthful or not, spoken without love have the potential to create problems.
It doesn’t matter if they are tweeted, facebooked, or spoken. If they are given without love or deference
to the potential audience (and that could be world-wide) they can be volatile.
One of the wisest men to ever live said it
like this, “Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers all
transgressions. Wisdom is found in the words of the discerning
person, but the one who lacks wisdom will be disciplined.”(Proverbs 10:12-13)
I’m not saying don’t have convictions. I’m saying start your convictions with
compassion. Compassion is defined as a sympathetic
consciousness of others' distress together with a desire to alleviate it. Humaneness, kindhearted, kindness, pity,
empathy and understanding.
So the next time you feel the need to speak on an issue, ask yourself, are the words you are using from the WORD?