“Some people make cutting remarks, but the words of the wise bring healing.” Proverbs 12:18 NLT
There was an old children’s rhyme that was supposed to project a certain self resilience from harmful words that were carelessly slung around at recess. “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words shall never hurt me.” What started as an article in a British magazine in 1857, made its circuitous way around the globe. A very old Jewish book, The Book of Sirach, had it quite opposite and far more accurate, “The blow of a whip raises a welt, but a blow of the tongue crushes the bones.”
The speed of instant words, traveling further and faster than our emotions can filter or process means that we are constantly violating the Apostle James Biblical admonition and simultaneously destroying our own civility – “be slow to speak (or write) be quick to listen.” Our words now embarrassingly live a longer life than we intended. Are we really supposed to say or write everything we think? Spewing our crass, cutting, filterless words? It’s easy to blame social media or our incessant and quite disturbing hunger for what the wisdom writers call, “dainty morsels.” Those dainty morsels, laced with dung, are exactly what wisdom warns us NOT to desire, nor digest whether it’s spoken (or written).
The “cutting” this Proverbs speaks of is a stabbing, piercing wound, conjuring a very visual thrusting of a sword. It’s a physical attack of words! The old English saying is wrong! Physical sticks and stones that break bones do have certain post traumatic stresses associated with them. If you have ever been physically attacked you know this is true. But oddly, piercing words haunt longer, seem to trigger faster and leave a wound that never quite heals. Bones heal, but nasty synapses continue to swirl through our souls!
How can we regain civility or the kindness we desire to teach our children. Stop posting piercing, wounding words! Control yourself! And quite contrary to our appetite for potty-mouth and poopy content – quit reading trash towards you or about others! Just go cold turkey on the addiction to dainty morsels. The words of the wise bring healing. With our words we can be wound closers not wound causers! We can suture not strike. Let’s shut down the cheap, cowardly crassness and move forward towards civility.
Prayer
Dad,
What drives us to WANT to hear, want to read such negative, unpleasant, unprofitable words against us or others? What exactly is the disordered desire that draws our hearts towards pain and such anger? It’s awful! It reminded me of Isaiah’s warning in 5:20, the complete reversal of taste, where bitter starts tasting sweet and sweet tastes bitter! Oh, help us God! Save us from ourselves and our foolishness.