Day 4 of 40 days to Resurrection Day

Today’s suggestion:

Give up critical words for an entire week.  Even better, do it for the remaining 40 days.

Today my sweet sister-friend, Robin Howe, is guest posting here.  Will join me and receive her gift of words?

My Momma always said, “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.”  My sweet husband has to remind me at times to “be nice.”

Society reminds me that once a word is spoken, it cannot be taken back.

With all of these reminders I would think it should be easy to speak kind words, yet more often than I care to admit, my words are critical, judgmental, hurtful . . . for those who hear those thoughtless words fall from my lips, those who are the recipient of my misplaced judgment, and for myself.

I dare to say that our critical words are rarely intentional.  We are not speaking them with the intent of tearing down the person we are talking about, hurting our witness to the one we are speaking to, or planting roots of bitterness in our hearts.  I dare to say that if we thought about our words before we spoke them, and the ramifications they have on so many, we would more carefully chose the words that we give a voice.

Let’s not think of this as a challenge, but rather think of it as gift.   The gift of life.  Because the tongue has the power of life or death. 

Let us pause and think before we speak.  We don’t know the situations behind a person’s actions or words, so we must be careful to speak life, speak blessings.  Our words may be what someone needs to hear.  Our words may encourage them to turn their hearts from pain to Jesus.

Maybe she has gained a few pounds while worrying over a health problem or is dealing with a broken relationship.

Maybe the worn out pants he wears all the time are the nicest ones he has.

Maybe she doesn’t know how to reach out to her daughter but is doing her best.

Maybe he isn’t as shallow as you think, he is putting up a front to hide a broken heart.

Maybe your heart needs to hear how beautiful you are, not another daily reminder of your “flaws.”

My prayer is that we will use our gifts of life beyond the next 7 days, or even through the remainder of the 40 days, but that we would spend our lives intentionally speaking life.

So I leave you with my prayers and a song . . .  SPEAK LIFE by TobyMac

Robin blogs at I Get Up Too Early.