Pastor’s Corner

Hey, Which character do you think has appeared in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade the most times? Is it Mickey Mouse; Snoopy; Ronald McDonald; or Santa Claus, stay tuned will tell you tomorrow. Give me your guess on comments.

Wednesday 11/23

Prov. 25:18 “Telling lies about others is as harmful as hitting them with a club, wounding them with a sword, or shooting them with a sharp arrow.”

This warning is speaking to the act of seeking to bring harm to others through these possible acts, by shading the truth, raising doubt, or just in causing suspicion. Either of these attempts at defaming the reputation of another person are as deadly as using a club, ax, sword, or arrows to bring harm to someone.

Words are as equally deadly as any attempt to harm someone physically. This proverb is striving to relate three differing weapons and their illustrations to harming someone, in order to purposefully emphasize how our speech can bring harm to those we speak evil of.

We have all seen in the news people who have been harmed by social media to the point that they have committed suicide. This is in fact further evidence of the extent of harm that words can bring to others. Of course, the opposite is also possible, to compliment, affirm, and brag on others to the extent that it builds up a person so much that they attempt to accomplish even greater things in their lives.

I was watching a kids movie on Netflix with my grandchildren called “The Bad Guys“ and this movie was pointing out the emptiness of success at doing bad and the richness of putting your skills to work to accomplish good. The movie even flipped the coin to show how sometimes people appear to be doing good, but are in fact attempting to achieve getting away with doing bad through giving the appearance of focusing on doing good. (are you totally confused, Ha)

Anyway, sorry about that rabbit trail, the emphasis here is to be mindful of the words we use to either harm others or to put ourselves in a good light. In either circumstance we bring harm to everyone; the person spoken evil of, or us for shading the truth, and then there is also the innocent victim in the middle of the lie.

Realize that words can harm, maim, or destroy those that we speak of. We should be careful of the words we speak, they can bring harm beyond what we may think.

So Go With God for He will guard us from bringing harm to others. Many times our intent is not to bring harm, but none the less, they do, Be quick to correct the potential harm our unintended words may result in. Our enemies seek to take our good intentions and turn them to harm. We have all seen this in life. Haven’t we?

Our words can be a healing ointment, or a burning acid wreaking destruction, Our Father can guide our words to bring ultimate benefit if we but surrender them to His care.