“Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.” Ephesians 4:29
One careless word, that’s all it takes to damage a relationship. I remember when I was young, my mom would warn me that I wasn’t to get into a fight if people tease. She said “stick and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me”. An old and tired saying, and not entirely true. Words are a wieldy weapon of destruction, as have been proven time and again. Physical wounds heal faster, and scars can be removed through the wonders of modern technology.
I believe anger to be such a useless emotion. It doesn’t really benefit anybody. But the way it controls people, blinding them to reason and goading them to do things they wouldn’t do in normal circumstances, is confounding. Most people express anger with the use of words that are designed to hurt. They do this at the height of their passion, and oftentimes, they regret what has been said but it’s too late. The damage is done, and the only thing left to do is to contain the damage to minimal.
Christianity is a way of life. It deals about relationships- relationship between man and God, relationship between man and man. And the Bible has many teachings and exhortations to make this as hassle-free as possible if only we will learn to heed it. But I’ve seen some relationships break down because of thoughtless and hurting words. Wounds to the emotions are slower to heal. They go deeper, and once in the system, it circulates its poison to cause maximum damage. Perhaps if one would only try to think before he speaks, to explain and to reason, not in anger but in a genuine desire to be understood, then strains on relationships will be avoided.
A friend of mine sent this text message to me and I think that it says my own sentiment so well:
“WORDS and HEARTS should be handled with care; for WORDS when spoken and HEARTS when broken are the hardest things to repair.”
