Ephesians 4:29 King James Version
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.
Every day, we are faced with different tasks and forced to deal with different people. Sometimes, we watch the news or go on social media and see so much negativity.
These things one way or another have bearing on our emotions. They could make us irritated or set our emotions off. This may affect the way we interact with people.
One day, a colleague and I got into a heated argument. Down the line, I screamed, “You are a bad person!”. Needless to say, the issue was escalated to the fullest. I later got to find out from her that those words affected her greatly and she found it difficult to make new sets of friends.
What I had said to her made her start questioning herself. Luckily for me, we are now the best of friends. Words could be a weapon of destruction if intended. Sometimes we may slip up and say hurtful words we didn’t intend to.
When this happens, acknowledge it and be quick to apologize. This doesn’t excuse us to make it a habit because we know we can always seek forgiveness.
Words are powerful – spoken, written, or thought about – and they create lasting impressions. They could make you feel better by building you up or they can make you feel worse by tearing you down.
Many people suffer low self-esteem because of the words others, family, friends, and loved ones have said to them consistently over the years.
Words may just be soundwaves, but they have supernatural energy that drives them. Think about it; If they don’t have a supernatural driving force, why will they have such an impact?
Remember, even our heavenly father created all things with words. That tells you just how powerful words can be. Beloved, considering how powerful words can be, we ought to discipline ourselves to use them in the best way possible.
When I sit back and think, my reality is an offshoot of the words I have consistently spoken about myself.
God wants us to be like him: our anger should be for a moment. The scripture according to James 1:19 makes this plain. It says, “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:”
The Almighty doesn’t want us to nag or prove we are hot-headed at every opportunity we get. The scriptures tell us to be slow to speak and slow to wrath. Ultimately, God wants us to be careful about getting angry.
He wants us to be quick to hear but slow to speak. In being slow, we can ponder on the words said to us and find the correct meaning and respond graciously without anger or wrath.
Wrath destroys and God does not want us to destroy ourselves with incessant anger. When we are angry, we tend to say hurtful things.
God doesn’t want us to say hurtful things, our speech should always be with grace as it is stated in Colossians 4:6, which says, “Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man”.
Some people wallow in the guilt of the last words they said to their lost family members, others have refused to see past all the negative words they have heard from their loved ones, and some have committed suicide because they couldn’t take the hurtful words anymore.
Take heed of this passage in the scriptures: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.” Proverbs 18:21. We need to be careful with words, choose them wisely and be gracious in speech like our creator.
Sinful, wicked, treacherous words should be far from us. No matter who we are speaking with, let our words be used for edification, healing, encouragement, and upliftment. Where we are tempted to use corrupt words, be gracious and say nothing.
Some people play off negative words as jokes but it shouldn’t be so. Words are not supposed to be joked with. If someone says something negative to you, whether intentionally or not, gracefully tell them it doesn’t sit well with you.
May God help us to guard our speech and use our tongue gracefully. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
