Speech

I must admit that many problems in my teen years could have been avoided by saying the right words and withholding the wrong ones. It seems like 2nd-grade knowledge, right? “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” But that 2nd-grade knowledge is still hard for some 40+-year-olds to grasp. So, even though I heard that little rhythmic sentence flow through my head all through elementary and middle school, I still didn’t quite get it. 

Now, there’s no particular day or church service that I attended that sparked the change, but the closer my relationship to God grew, the more I began to think before I spoke. I started by taking inventory of how people reacted to my words; did it hurt them, help them, or were they just unnecessary? Those are the three categories I choose to run my words through; will this help someone or hurt someone, or if it’s neither, is it even necessary to say. Once my words ran through those categories, I decided to use a filter. The two filters are Love/Truth and Time/Place. First, am I saying what needs to be said in a loving way, and is it the truth? People are more likely to receive what you say when it comes from a place of truth, love, and understanding. Next, is it the right time and place for this to be said, and if not, make a note of it and revisit the conversation later. I know you may be thinking, “Who has time to think about all of that before opening their mouth?” Ding, Ding, Ding! My point exactly! Lol. The time it takes to think about all of this also eliminates outbursts and saying things we’ll regret. 

Some of the biggest mistakes we tend to make have to do with words said that could not be erased. We see it every day on Twitter, Instagram, News Channels, and Facebook. Our job is to become an example for others in how we speak to one another, about one another, and our general conversation. Our words hold weight, and we can be part of the solution, not the problem. One word can change lives, so as young people, let’s use our voice for good.