I thought for certain I'd have a picture of someone sticking out there tongue, but fortunately I did not. This cutie has the sweetest words come off his tongue!
Growing up in the family of a heavy construction company-road and bridge work, enormous dump trucks were a familiarity. I feel that often my husband becomes my dumping ground...bless his heart.
My father was a brilliant engineer and a perfectionist who set high standards. I always admired that about him and much to my family’s chagrin I have a lot of some similar traits. The family members whose love language is "words of affirmation" are often wounded by my challenges though. A perfect example is when something goes wrong at church where my husband is the campus pastor…like a kitchen mess or something broken…I go to him and"dump" ... he takes those conversations to heart as his failure. I’ve learned to preface my “church” conversations with “I’m not saying this is your problem or failing, but...” What I need to do is point out 10 positives to even out 1 sore spot.
We must tame our tongues and think before we speak.
Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger. James 1:19
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Psalm 19:14
I have probably written that last year I came up with a word to politely correct our grandchildren when they were speaking unkindly or derogatorily to another sibling, cousin, friend. I simply say “honeycomb” and it makes them stop and think about their words. "Gracious words are like honeycomb." Proverbs 16:24
I used to stop them and say “Are those words life giving? Are you making that person feel good?) Honeycomb is a lot more subtle and gets the point across!
Fortunately or sometimes unfortunately, God knows the intent of our hearts and what is coming off our tongues before we let the words fly. We are known by Him.
Oh Lord, You have examined my heart and know everything about me. Psalm 139:1
Beth Knight has a similar devotional on Proverbs 31 about how we can sweeten our speech with grace.
https://proverbs31.org/read/devotions/full-post/2023/02/03/is-my-speech-sweetened-with-grace
The Song
"Words" Hawk Nelson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anVweXDcxhA
