Faith Words: Words With Friends

Right now, I have four games of Words With Friends going on.  It's a lot like Scrabble. The goal is to rack up the most points with the letters you use.  I've spelled words I didn't know existed.  I win some and I lose some. I'm competitive enough to want to win but compassionate enough not to want to beat my component too badly.  I sometimes wish they felt the same.  This kind of word game is fun and challenging.  My friends and I enjoy the back and forth nature of the game.

Faith Words is kind of like that.  We find verses to set to memory and challenge each other to do the same.  At our annual celebration, we each feel a little competition with one another to know and say our verses, but the real joy comes from sharing the verses with each other and giving each other a little grace regarding the whole memory thing.  It's the back and forth nature of the sharing that brings us close.

Who are you sharing words with?  Do your words bring you closer to others?  Are you kind with your words?  Do your words encourage?

It's far too easy to speak words that hurt. They say taking back words is like picking up feathers scattered to the winds - an impossible task.  The key here is to guard them and be careful which ones pass over our lips.

I've had plenty of experience with words.  I won with them and I've lost with them.  I'm self-centered enough to want to win in life's word game but hate the harm I do when I beat people up with my words.  I should be more careful with my words and I hope others will be equally careful with the words they send my way.  In the back and forth word game, if we try, we can all come out ahead.

We may never know the effects of the words we speak, whether for good or ill, but their power ripples on in the lives of the hearers who sometimes replay them long after they're spoken. It would be better to have them leave the sweet echo of love.

Mark my words.

Patrice

Proverbs 18:21a NIV

The tongue has the power of life and death.