Our Words As Garden Tools - Part V

Clippers - Do Cut Out Unnecessary, Unkind Words

Ps. 141:3 “Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.”

Ps. 34:13 “Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile.”

Prov. 21:23 “Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue keepeth is soul from troubles.”

Prov. 29:11 “A fool uttereth all his mind: but a wise man keepeth it in till afterwards.”

(I’d like to share a list of ‘steps’ when a problem arises to confront the problem appropriately)

1. Pray alone and ask the Lord to give you wisdom on how to confront the person
2. Have a ‘cooling off’ period
3. Confront them with Proverbs 15:1 in mind “A soft answer turneth away wrath; but grevious words stir up anger”
4. Pray together about the situation (especially within a marital issue)
5. Remember first and foremost, we are accountable to God! Two wrongs (if the other person was wrong in their doings) don’t make a right!

I Peter 3:9 “Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that should inherit a blessing.”

James 1:19 “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:”

The hardest thing to take back are words because once they are spoken they are out. It’s not like we can take the ‘rewind’ button and reverse what was said. Now we can and should ask for forgiveness once we have spoken an unkind word but a lot of times the hurt has already been done. If you are like me, I find myself saying things at times when I am having a ‘bad day’ because what would make my ‘bad day’ even better? To make someone else have a ‘bad day’ as well through my words spoken to them. (I am sure we are all guilty of that more than we realize) For me it’s like as soon as the last word rolls off my tongue, my heart just sinks knowing what I just did. It makes me sad and very regretful.

Our utmost desire should be to be quick to hear and S L O W to speak. We shouldn’t return insult for insult but rather, when we are insulted, we should return a blessing (easier said than done I know). We can’t possibly fulfill these desires in our own strength but with the Lord’s help we can do ALL things!

Tomorrow we will look at: Sprinkler - Do Splash Joy On Everyone You Meet