Across the road from where I live, they’re building a new house and every morning pretty early, you can hear the tradies get started for the day. The music goes on, the generator fires up and the gentle sound of drills, circular saws, nail guns and other power tools fills the morning air-how’s the serenity!
While power tools are really essential to the construction industry, power tools are also potentially dangerous. Used the wrong way, they can cause a lot of damage. I guess that’s why they often have safety instructions!
When you think about it, each day we have access to a range of tools far more powerful than any of those. I’m talking about our words. Just think for a moment about the power of words…
Our words can be used constructively or destructively, to build up or tear apart. Words can hurt or heal, launch a war or bring about peace, destroy a friendship or create a lifelong marriage. With that much potential and power in our words, it’s worth thinking about how we use those words safely, to construct and not destruct.
Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them. Ephesians 4:29
God wants us to use our words to build others up. How can you use your words constructively to build relationships and not to tear down?
Consider making this part of your morning prayers:
“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight,
O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer” (Psalm 19:14 NIV).
David Spike
Learning Leader: Formation
