Words to Live By

“Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.” - Colossians 4;6

“Can’t you do anything right? You mindless idiot; how could you have forgotten the car keys? That’s the third time this week you’ve spilled the milk!” Like the relentless pounding of the surf, waves of criticism wear on the beachhead of the soul.

It should be no surprise that low self-esteem leads the list of mental maladies. Is it any wonder that the word can’t is so quick to volunteer its services in dampening the spirit of any endeavor? As it steps from the ranks of our vocabulary, it proudly wears the uniform of failure—and why not? We have been reminded countless times of our limitations and inadequacies. Should we not have anticipated a down generation – one that has been nurtured on sarcastic speech and vitriolic verse? But praise God the reverse is equally true. Words of praise and encouragement lift the spirit and strengthen the soul

“A wholesome tongue is a tree of life: but perverseness is a breach in the spirit” (Proverbs 15:4).

“A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver” (Proverbs 25:11).

“Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers” (Ephesians 4:29).

We don’t need self-esteem but God’s esteem. That’s the way I see things.