20150719
“Sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me.” Surely all of us must have heard or even uttered this statement before. Be careful – it may not hurt you but it can kill someone else!
Karen Carpenter, of the famed “The Carpenters” . (Richard and Karen) in the 1970’s, makes a good illustration of the deadly potency of careless words. Somebody at school said to her one day: “Oh! You are Richard’s chubby sister”. The words clung to her and every time she looked in the mirror, she saw “Richard’s chubby sister”. She was a beautiful slim young lady who at age 32 literally starved to death in 1983. She died, not for lack of food but of anorexia nervosa (a psychological eating disorder) that led to heart failure. The words she heard as a child impacted her young life and certainly had a part to play in her untimely death.
However, we as Christians can alleviate the potential damage by following some good biblical advice. Rely on God’s strength and dedicate your heart and tongue to the Lord every day. Meditate on the Bible, the Word of God that address the power of words and put your heart in tune with the Holy Spirit daily. Speak wonderful words of life that will encourage, comfort, inspire and edify one another. Ask for forgiveness for any unloving words wrongly uttered. In summary, it is best to remember: “A careless word may kindle strife. A cruel word may wreck a life. A timely word may level stress. But a loving word will heal and bless”. Words uttered with care and prudence certainly will have a great impact on our relationships with one another. The advice given in a motivational poster says it best: “Be careful of the words you say – keep them soft and sweet. You never know from day to day which ones you’ll have to eat”. Make sure that your words are always good enough to eat!
Proverbs 18:21 says: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits”. The tongue, which is among the smallest organs in the human body, with the ability to wield so much power in life (good and evil) is well illustrated in James 3. The power of words can be for good or can be extremely devastating, even deadly. The book of Proverbs has many good examples of both wise and harmful words that show us how we should always control our word and speech. However, our sinful nature very often leads us to unconsciously, especially in moments of uncontrolled rage and anger, expel hurtful words on our loved ones and friends. We have surely during our lifetime uttered harmful words that are difficult to retract, apologise for, forget and like they say: “sometimes we have to eat our words”. But the damage is sadly done! It is extremely difficult for people to tame the tongue as the Bible teaches: “But no human can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison” (James 3:8).
