I Know How to Break A Man

"By the tidings of my tongue I lie and sing what can't be unsung, my soul torn in two by the things that I say to you, by the things that I say..."

It's funny (not really) how you always get the opportunity to put into practice the things that you're learning. I've been reading an outstanding article from the Journal of Biblical Counseling (it sounds scary, but it's not!) called "Watch Your Language." Really convicting, really heart-revealing stuff. I loved it when I read it, but I didn't love it so much later in the day when I found myself messing up.

Words are essential to our communication with others and are powerful instruments either of encouragement or destruction. They have the power to lift up the downcast or to cut right to the quick. They can encourage the faint-hearted and weak or break one's spirit. Our words reflect what's in our hearts. When we are "squeezed" by our circumstances, what comes out of us is exactly what's inside.

Among other things, this particular article said, "Gentle talk does not come from a person who is angry and looking to settle a score. It comes from the person who is speaking not because of what he wants from you but what he wants FOR you. I speak to you, not because your sin has affected me, but because it has ensnared you."

All this is about community, all this is about love for others, all this is about serving the saints. It's all about saying those words that benefit everyone who hears you. I failed miserably in this today ... but thank God for mercies that are new every morning ...