Hurtful Words Repost from January 3rd, 2007

I have been blogging now for over three years. I did this devotional back on Wednesday January 3rd, 2007. Over the years it has had the most hits on my blog so I thought I would re post it.



Why are these words so hard to say and hurtful words fly out of our mouths like gushing waters.

My Devotional for Wednesday January 3rd, 2007

I find myself at times trying to defend myself when people attack me for no reason, with not so nice words. When I get hurt, I want to hurt others; I need to learn to be slow to speak. If I am tempted to fight back with hurtful words, I need to be the person that walks away. If it is someone in my family, I need to be the one that closes my mouth and stops the hurt. If it is someone outside my family, it is best for me to not be around the person causing me pain. This will help me from saying things that I guess, are true, but really don't have to be said. I was reminded of these passages today.

James 3:5-6 - It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire. A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell.

Proverbs 10:21–"The lips of the righteous nourish many, but fools die for lack of judgment."–Lord, may my lips nourish people today.

Psalm 17:3–Today I have resolved that my mouth will not sin.

Philippians 4:8–Whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy, may I think on these things today.

James 1:19–Help me to be quick to listen and slow to speak.

Our tongue can do so much damage. It can ruin friendships, cause misunderstandings, put a wall between brothers and sisters. I have been guilty of saying hurtful things. I must be ever mindful that what I say can damage and cause divisions – and therefore not to speak critically. A lot of what I say is probably best left unsaid.

I have also been hurt by hurtful words – some more than others. In many cases the damage is so deep that it takes a long time to heal – in some cases I don't know if I will ever heal. But I know that if I belong to Jesus, He can heal me as I surrender it to Him. Nothing is impossible for Him to heal – if I allow Him too. I know of many adults that are caring around scares from childhood. We need to deal with these things. The hurt gets buried deep, but God has a way of bringing it to the surface. These people turn around and hurt the people that love them the most. They build a wall around themselves so people can't get close to them. I just know that I need to free my own mouth from hurtful and damaging words. It’s painful, to rid ourselves of people like this but needful to truly be healed and set free from the affects of negative, hateful words.

The saying ‘Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me’, is not true, and in-fact it’s quite the opposite. Bones can heal a whole lot faster than words spoken over us. I just need to work on this for the coming year.

Set a guard, O Lord, before my mouth; keep watch at the door of my lips. - Psalm 141:3

Heal us, Lord, from painful words
That was spoken in the past
Let your love replace the hurt
And overflow our hearts.

-M.S.Lowndes