High voltage words
Avoiding being burned by words
Avoiding high-voltage words
Have you ever had someone hand you a tube of toothpaste and tell you to squeeze it all out? Then tell you to put it back in the tube again? Then tell you that words are like toothpaste – once they come out there is no getting them back? That little illustration really drives home the point about how careful we should be about our words. Some words should have warning signs on them, “high voltage –stay away”. Studies have estimated that we all speak around 15,000 words a day. That’s a lot of opportunities for getting burned by the high voltage! I can’t imagine that there is anyone who has not experienced the remorse of saying the wrong words, or saying words at the wrong time. There is nothing peaceful about lying down at night only to be reminded of words that we knew we really should not have said, but somehow, they came out anyway. There is nothing peaceful about having to try to undo the damage done in a relationship by harsh words uttered without thought. Those types of words would be what I call “high voltage words”. They can be very damaging.
Peace and joy are included!
Since we are in pursuit of finding out how to live in God’s presence and stay on “The Blessing Road”, it’s important that we realize how our words can affect our journey. Proverbs 13:3 says, “Whoever guards his mouth preserves his life; he who opens wide his lips comes to ruin”. Well we know we don’t want to experience that “comes to ruin” part! Lol! And we know we do want to experience the “preserves his life” part, right? And in Psalms 34, verses 12-13, we are given more great insight: What man is there who desires life and loves many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.
Peace and joy surely are included in the good that we may see if we obey the instruction! So… let’s take a look at that all-important instruction, “keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit”. That last word, “deceit”, is pretty strong all by itself. After all, the book of Revelation tells us, not once, but twice (21:8 and 22:15) that those who tell lies will suffer very bad consequences. We already know that at all costs, we want to avoid those consequences!
How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small flame!
Yet, maybe it is a little deeper than that. James tells us that, “the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. (3:5-6) Wow! That is hard to swallow. It seems that the tongue is capable of destroying our entire life! That is extremely high voltage!! So, is there more that we should stay away from? Well, of course there is. Lol! You already knew the answer to that one, didn’t you? Matthew 12:36 says, I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” Ouch!! Surely not! Careless? Careless??? Really??? Am I really going to be held accountable for every careless word that I speak? This was so intimidating that I thought I had better check the meaning of that word “careless”. According to Strong’s Lexicon, the word for careless there can mean idle, lazy, thoughtless, unprofitable, injurious, lazy, or useless. Wow!! I feel like I probably speak idle and useless words pretty regularly, besides the times when I am all those other things. Lol! I’m so thankful that God is loving and patient and merciful because I fail at this one pretty often. But I will continue to seek His help to do better!
Is the perspective skewed?
And then…, there is another word that I ran into repeatedly on my quest to locate the “high-voltage” words: slander. Slander seems to be a pretty big deal with God. It is mentioned repeatedly:
- Ephesians 4:31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. (NIV) (Emphasis mine)
- Titus 3:1-2 Remind the people … to slander no one…(NIV) (Emphasis mine)
- James 4:11a Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. (NIV) (Emphasis mine)
- 1 Peter 2:1 Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. (NIV) (Emphasis mine)
While it is obvious that slander includes telling lies about someone, it is not so obvious that the things we say could be half-truths, words taken out of context, or words delivered from a skewed perspective. How easy is it to report activities in light of our opinion of someone? Maybe what we are saying is generally true, but then we don’t want to be the one to make that person look too good or appear too smart, so maybe we use certain words or apply certain voice inflections just to make sure that our opinion of that person is what comes through. Could this be slander?
So, to avoid “setting on fire the entire course of life”, we must stay away from high-voltage words! Only then can we stay on “The Blessing Road”. See you out there! 🙂
GUARD RAIL: Stay away from high-voltage words!
What man is there who desires life and loves many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.
Psalms 34:12-13