Training Wheels Graduation (got fruit? got love?)
July 11, 2021
It has been said that more people have been killed with the tongue than in all the wars in human history. As a result, both the world and churches are filled with people crying out for words of affirmation and love.
“Love” is the first fruit of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians 5: 22-23:
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Many are the ways we can cultivate the fruit of love, and one major way is through our loving words to each other. However, who of us did not chant, as young children, “Sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me”? In so doing, we tried to claim that people cannot be hurt by unpleasant things that were said to them. Our chanting denied the power of our words!
I often tell the story of the long weekend my Dad spent helping me graduate from training wheels to a two wheeler. Thinking I had mastered the skill, I got a little reckless when I visited my cousin Kathy around the block, and tried to show off my newly learned skill. Very quickly into my ride on her bicycle, the front wheel started to wobble and I did not know how to course correct. However, a crack in the sidewalk brought the wobble to an end when it catapulted me over the handlebars onto a huge rock in a neighbor’s lawn. I ended up with a huge goose egg on the side of my head, an emergency run to our family doctor, a concussion, and words I’ve never forgotten. My doctor told me I was “one lucky little girl”. He said, “If you had hit your head just a little further to the left, near your temple, you might have died.” The physical pain of that bike ride is long forgotten; the doctor’s powerful words to my 5-year-old heart are still remembered.
The truth is, words have tremendous power to hurt or to heal others, and to offer death or life. We have the opportunity to love others by using our words wisely, or to harm others by using our words recklessly. Consider these verses:
The words of the reckless pierce like swords,
but the tongue of the wise brings healing. – Proverbs 12: 18
Some of us have the terrible ability to speak in a way that slices and stabs others. Our reckless words are like the piercings of a sword and bring hurt instead of healing. By contrast, wise men and women are able to bring healing and health through the words they speak.
Death and life are in the power of the tongue,
and those who love it will eat its fruits. – Proverbs 18: 21
Those who are wise enough to love and appreciate the power of their tongue, will be blessed and eat the pleasant fruit of wise and effective speech.
So how are you doing with loving others with your words? got fruit? got love?
