Sunday, 12th June, 2022
Bible Reading: James 2:12, Ephesians 4: 29
Memory Verse: Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. Colossians 4:6 (NIV)
Be kind. you never know when you’ll have to eat your words. Someone once wrote: I remember a cooking competition I watched more than 20 years ago. About five (5) women were to individually prepare a specific soup. The organisers labelled each woman’s soup with an alphabet.
All the husbands were to taste all the dishes, score based on taste, and give their comments. The winner was the woman whose dish scored the highest. No husband knew which dish was his wife’s, but each wife knew hers. When the men walked in, their wives were seated in a corner. There was a particular dish that must have tasted bad because none of the men gave positive reviews. However, some men were gracious in their reviews.
One man said, the soup is a little too salty. But it happens to the best of cooks. Another said, this soup is salty but it is understandable given the tight deadline. The last man entered, tasted the dish and said, “This is terrible. To think that a man has to put up with eating such! What kind of woman cooks like this? Salt is too much. Pepper is too much. Everything is just wrong.” He went on and on, deliberately caustic.
Whoever prepared the dish didn’t deserve all the acid he was spewing. Plot Twist! We, the viewers, knew that was his wife’s dish. His wife knew too. I wondered what was going through her mind when her husband said all those things. When the results were announced, the man almost fainted when he found out that it was his wife’s dish he’d so harshly criticised. The other husbands and wives hugged each other, including those that didn’t win. This particular couple couldn’t.
I wonder how they rode home that day. I wonder how their children, family, friends and fans felt after watching that on national TV. The next time you’re tempted to spew bile-filled words at your colleagues, spouse, children, siblings, or friends remember: Your words may return to hunt you. Also, people are fighting battles you know absolutely nothing about. Be kind with your words.
Quote: Words are fragile. Like an egg, once broken cannot be brought back into its shell.
Prophetic Decree: Any negative word hanging over your head is cancelled, by the power in the Blood of Jesus.
Prayer Focus
1. Holy Spirit, please purge my heart, the fountain of my thoughts today, in Jesus name.
2. I receive grace to be temperate in spirit, in Jesus name.
3. My Father, give me wisdom to always articulate my words, in Jesus name.
4. I receive grace to be quick to hear, but slow to speak, in Jesus name.
5. My Father, empower my tongue. As I speak prophetically, hastily let it come to pass, in Jesus mighty name.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: 1 Kings 7; 2 Chronicles 4
