If We’re Careful With Our Words, Life Goes Better
God cares about us. He cares about how well our relationships go with others, especially our family members. So He gives us guidance and direction to help us. The bible shows us that one of the biggest keys to healthy relationships is the words we choose to speak.
Proverbs 13:3 tells us, “He who guards his lips guards his life, but he who speaks rashly will come to ruin.”
Proverbs 12:18 says, “The words of the reckless pierce like swords, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.”
And Proverbs 18:21 says, “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.”
From these scriptures we see that the things we speak are huge. When we choose to be careful with the way we speak, we find the best results in life. When we are careless and speak negative, critical or hurtful words, we bring pain and even death to our relationships. So we must believe God. We have to decide we are going to work at it. We have to take this seriously and ask God to help us get it right and do our best to follow His leading to speak wisely, not recklessly.
This battle starts and is won first in our minds. The bad thought comes and it says something like this: “Let them have it verbally. They deserve it. Speak harshly, rashly and give it to them. It will feel good.” But 2 Corinthians 10:5b says: “…and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
So here is where we start to win the battle in our relationships and in life. What we do instead of letting fly with our words is catch ourselves, take that thought captive and decide that we are not going to speak those negative words. Instead, we decide at that moment to gather ourselves, calm our emotions and speak words that are wise, words that bring healing and words that will bless our lives and the lives of those around us.
We need to THINK before we speak and ask ourselves: Is it…
True?
Helpful?
Inspiring?
Necessary?
Kind?
If we are careful with our words in this way and follow God’s counsel, our relationships will get better and better and the quality of our lives will increase dramatically. God loves us and He wants this for us. So THINK before you speak, be careful with your words, pray and ask God to help you and He will. You will find that over time and as you improve in this area, you and those around you will love life even more.
Psalm 19:14: May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. (NLT)