Word of the week
Your tongue can scatter
Proverbs 12:18 AMPC
“There are those who speak rashly, like the piercing of a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.”
Have you notice that when some people speak certain words to you, you feel pained deep within your heart.
Your body is intact, but your soul is bleeding.
This is because their words were so bitter and harsh that the words were like a sword cutting your soul into pieces.
There are lot of people in life that have been damaged by the words of others.
Words are very powerful, be careful how you use them.
A popular adage says your behaviour is like smoke. Smoke is insidious. It will go everywhere. You can’t hide it. This means what you do to me, how you talk to me is what you will do to others and how you will talk to others.
If you speak to me harshly and rudely, it’s possible I can take it no matter how painful it is.
Another person you speak to harshly or rudely may not be able to take it.
Their evil thoughts can hurt you if you deserve it.
They can go a step further to actively work against the person that hurt them with words, whether physically or diabolically
In 2 Samuel 6, Michal, the wife of David tore David to shreds with her words.
Don’t form a habit of talking anyhow
If you form a habit of talking anyhow, you will suffer anyhow.
David was a highly anointed king, worshipper and warrior. But when faced with the insult of Michal, he didn’t just respond to Michal, he referred to her father Saul.
David said I’m dancing before God who made me to succeed your father.
In Yoruba land, it is a big insult for people to refer to your parents during a misunderstanding
But you must understand that in life, sometimes insult will respond to insult.
For example, your son or daughter has formed a habit of talking back to you. Is it possible that you too are always insulting them?
The fact that you gave birth to a child does not give you the permission to insult that child.
If you do, the child you gave birth to will insult you back.
Sometimes patience is the response to insult.
But other times insult will be the response to insult
Avoid talking anyhow to people in order to avoid receiving insults
A brother said something years ago. He gave his own theory as to why Michal never had any child.
He said that from the moment Michal spoke contemptuously about David, David stopped sleeping with her.
So, how on earth will she have a child when the husband didn’t sleep with her.
That brother’s theory is very plausible.
It is common knowledge that what you respect moves towards you and what you despise move away from you.
If you kick a dog, the next time the dog sees you, it will move away, how much more human beings?
Be careful, don’t use your tongue to scatter your life. Don’t use your tongue to scatter the lives of others.
Use your tongue to build, use your tongue to heal.
Thank you for listening to me today.
Have a great week.
God bless you.
Message of the week
The silence that hurts
Genesis 35:22 AMPC
“When Israel dwelt there, Reuben [his eldest son] went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine; and Israel heard about it. Now Jacob’s sons were twelve.”
One of the areas where silence hurts is relationships. We assume we know the intentions of the other person. We act towards them based on the what we think we know and what we think we know may be wrong.
Something happened between me and a friend recently: I had called her twice without her returning my call. The 1st time I understood. Maybe she was busy. The 2nd time was odd. I thought maybe she was too busy to return my call, so I decided to respect myself and just keep a distance between her and myself.
But it so happened that I had an important information to pass across to this friend of mine. I was reluctant to call her, because I didn’t want to be ignored the 3rd time. Notwithstanding I called.
When I called the 3rd time, the phone rang only twice and my friend picked up. I gave her the important information. I now told her how I had called her twice and she didn’t return my call.
It turned out she never saw any missed calls from me!
She said and I quote ‘I’m at work now and I picked your call, why would I not return your missed calls?’
These two examples bring me to our topic for today: The silence that hurts.
Jacob’s son Reuben did a terrible thing to his father. The Bible said Jacob heard it. Jacob never addressed the offence until the day of his death when he dished out a grievous curse on Reuben.
Reuben was not given a chance to repent and beg his father.
That was then. Only God knows why Jacob was allowed to keep silent on that offence.
But my own little advice to you going forward is don’t keep silent to the detriment of your relationships.
The devil is an expert at breaking relationships but sometimes we hell the devil with our silence. In our silence are a lot of assumptions that may not be true.
I assumed my husband ignored me.
I assumed my friend snubbed me.
Both assumptions were wrong.
I only realised both assumptions were wrong because I spoke out.
I’m not saying you should be a fault finder, always criticising and complaining. No. What I am saying is that sometimes you give people an opportunity to explain themselves. Don’t arrive at the wrong conclusions about them.
It’s possible they didn’t mean to wrong you. If you keep silent too much, you may end up operating your relationships on the basis of wrong assumptions.
It’s also possible they meant to hurt you like Reuben did to his father.
So, if you speak up, you may give them an opportunity to repent and make their ways right.
There is an adage that says, ‘silence is golden.’ This is true but there is also a silence that hurts.
I pray that you have a good week.
God bless you.
