God's Words

During the last month, I've been reminded of one of my favorite Bible verses. It's from James and it says something to the effect of, "With the same tongue we bless God and curse men. Little children, this should not be so." Wow, says a mouthful. No pun intended. I have a friend who said to me that if God came down and showed us how what we said hurt someone by replaying it for us and seeing how badly we'd hurt said person, we'd be more than upset with ourselves. We'd be stunned. We'd also watch our words much more carefully.
We have all said things we shouldn't. Sometimes it really isn't meant the way it is taken. Sometimes though, being our sinful selves, we may not care or even worse, use hurtful words on purpose. Sure, it all sounds so first grade but where did we learn to bully speaking words that cut? For some of us it was on the playground. Sadly, for others, it was at home.
Jesus talks about lifting each other up in prayer. We do this of course. But He also wants us to lift each other up with the words we use face to face. What words would God use? Even when we mess up, He gently guides us back to where we are suppose to be. That's mercy defined-loosely. Mercy actually is not punishing us as we deserve. Hence, sending Jesus to take on our misdeeds. God pours out so much love on us it is unbelievable. Yet, believing is what gets us through. Prayer is good too.
What if we all tried to take a second before we speak and ask God to guide our words. Better yet, what if we asked Him to give us His words to use? To build up, to correct, to redirect and to love. God's words. Give 'em a try!