Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips. Psalm 141:3
The heat and humidity has been hitting us hard lately. Of course that leads to rain and storms with the uncertainty of the power staying on. The electricity has been blinking for the past few days, but we haven’t lost power for more than a couple of minutes at a time.
The other night we had a power surge. After the hubby messed with the breaker, it was time to see if it affected any electronics. We found out that it could have been worse. It only got a few things, but among them was the Wi-Fi router. It was fried! We had to wait for a new one before I could post anything new. I thought about posting it to my living room wall like Beatrice did in the Esurance commercial, but “That’s not how any of this works!”
It amazes me how something that happened in a blink of an eye can completely ruin something else! It got me thinking about how quickly our relationships can get fried by surges of anger, just like our router did. One sharp word and our tongue can ruin a relationship that took years to build.
The boys did an experiment in Sunday School where they had to squeeze all the toothpaste out of the tube. They were given toothpicks to put it back in…not so easy. Just like our words.
We read about a boy having to hammer nails into a board each time his tongue got out of control. The child was able to start taking the nails out as he learned to control his words and anger. Success at last…all the nails were gone! However, there wasn’t a smooth board there anymore. It was filled with holes that damaged the board and didn’t go away.
Today, make sure your words are building people up. There is a saying “You Rise When Lifting Others” that we need to keep in the front of our thoughts. Don’t fry a relationship with a surge of anger, with thoughtless words, or abruptness. One word can cut off communication just like the loss of my router did, but the irreparable damage is done to something so much more precious…a relationship with a loved one.
Use your words for strengthening your relationships today.
