Words Matter

“[B]e kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.” ~Ephesians 4:32

Words matter. A person needs just to turn on the radio or open the newspaper to know that unkind words saturate the media. Today’s rhetoric easily falls into destructive speech that tears down relationships and corrodes civil society. Such speech is discouraging.

As Christians we are called to a different way of being. We are called to be people of the Word, which is love. Such love seeks the wholeness of all people. We are called, in the words of the Apostle Paul, “to be kind to one another.”  We are called to convey God’s grace and forgiveness.  Let us be a people whose words heal divisions, build up community, and speak truth in love.

What kind words might you say today? Offer a kind word to the grocery store clerk, the mail carrier, your children or partner, a friend, or a passerby on the street. Speak kindness into the world.

Tenderhearted, may our words reflect Christ, the foundation of life itself.