The Word

     2 Timothy 3:16
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
    

     If all scripture is God-breathed that says a lot about how powerful The Word is.  God gave us The Word to communicate how He loves us and how we are to live.  Words are not only how He communicates with us, but how we are to communicate with each other.  Words are powerful enough to build kingdoms and destroy lives.  They communicate love and hate.  They begin marriages and they end marriages.  We often remember first words and last words.  Do we give words enough respect to use them wisely?  With love?  Actions speak louder than words, especially when we lie.  God's actions confirm His Word.
     If we thought of words as tools would we be more careful in choosing which ones we use?  A hammer can do just as much damage as it can play a role in building.  You can strike with words missing the mark if you don't listen to the master carpenter.  They can be used to build up hope, encouragement, and self esteem or they can tear down destroying hope and self esteem.  Like words, when using a saw you should measure and re-measure because once you cut that board there is no putting it back together. 
     I am trying to learn to put my tools/words away when I am angry, because it seems impossible to use them correctly.  We focus too much on what I need to say, or what I think you need to hear for me to feel better.  Who are we to judge what another needs to hear unless we are passing our words through a filter of God's love.  There are times when God tells us to say something that makes no sense to our human minds.  But He knows the whole picture.  
  I was in the shower one evening when God told me to send an email to Dave.  He told me exactly what I needed to say and it made no sense to me.  It was an apology, though Dave was not the person I had offended.  I didn't understand, but I obeyed.  As I wrote the email I first told him that I didn't understand and hoped it would mean something to him.  As I started writing, the tears came.  I realized how sorry I really was for what I had done.  It took Dave a long time to respond and I wondered if the email was really meant for me.  When he did respond it quickly became obvious that the email was meant for both of us.  Somebody had offended him in the same way and he felt my email was a gift from God that set him free.  I would have never thought to say those words to Dave on my own, they seemed meaningless passed from me to him, but God had a bigger plan.  Those words were powerful to both of us and gave us both healing.
     We allow God to instruct us in many ways, our actions, our time, and our relationships, but I have had to practice surrendering my vocabulary, my words.  I have a tone sometimes, that I don't hear, but others do and it hurts.  I have a sarcastic sense of humor that some people don't understand and can be hurt by.  I try to pay attention to the ways others use their words.  There are people who can talk about nothing and put a smile on every one's face.  I try to be more like them.  There are people who offend me when they argue with everything I say or try to correct me like their doing me a favor in my growth.  I try not to do that to others.  The best way I have found to use words is to receive more of them than I give away.  Not easy for me.  Some of us were born to talk.
     In the last year I have taken out a lot of my rage on Dave.  Only because God was involved have we continued to be friends.  Yesterday he told me the last two times I raged at him it hurt.  Why now?  Because I know him.  Because I know him my words have more power.  I seem to be less careful with my words when I'm with people I'm close to.  These should be the people I am most aware with.  We take those closest to us for granted. 
     I have had people say things to me, that hurt more than they should, because of my history there is already a wound.  This is another reason to surrender our words to God and trust Him to direct them.  It takes time to change and we want others to be predictable.  One of my daughters recently became frustrated with me.  My other daughter had done something that I had yelled at her for years earlier.  "Why aren't you saying anything to her?"  I had to explain, I am learning to keep my mouth shut and maybe I should have back then.
     Many times I have gone home at the end of the day and beat myself up for something I said without thinking, something I said in anger, or even something nice I said, but with my own agenda.  More often I have beat myself up for things I didn't say.  When some one dies and we never told them how special they were to us.  We hold back compliments, apologies and love.  Good feelings need to be shared for the joy of others.  I'm also learning to smile in place of words, it's not as often misunderstood.  Patting a hand or sitting next to someone and bumping their shoulder can say just as much if your not sure of the right words.
  As I do when I am writing, I ask Him to speak through me, help me surrender my will and keep the demons from using my tongue.

"The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks."
- Luke 6:45