This week's inspirational message is based on Ephesians 4:29-5:2
The Power of Your Words...
“Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them…”
When I was a student in high school, I had a teacher who rarely made personal comments about our work. He was a soft-spoken man and took his profession seriously. His assignments were difficult and his grading methods were tough. He rarely showed emotion or talked to us in a personal manner. But if and when he did call a student to his desk to come and speak to him, it was a treasured moment because he always followed the wise words of wisdom, probably taught to him by his mother, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.”
You knew if he called your name, it was gonna be GOOD!
I don’t know if he realized that he was also following scriptural advice, but he never uttered a word in our presence that wasn’t good, helpful, or encouraging. Or perhaps he had read the works of Frederick William Faber who said, “No one was ever corrected by a sarcasm, crushed perhaps, if the sarcasm was clever enough, but drawn to God, never.”
It is hard to remember how much power our words have, what affect they may have on another, or how crushing they can be when they’re negative. Perhaps we could all be a little more like the teacher, so that even before we speak others will know, “This is gonna be GOOD.”
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