Sticks and Stones...

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Good morning and welcome to Thought for the Day.

They say that “sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me”, but I don’t think any of us think that’s quite right.

You can still be struggling from the pain of words many years later long after any physical hurts have healed.

Why do I raise this this morning?

Well the Bible has a huge amount to say about our words.

The book of James – most likely written by Jesus’ half brother, James, talks about our words by focusing in on the part of the body primarily responsible for generating words, the tongue.

And it says, you know how a bit is a small piece of metal put into the mouth of a horse, and yet with it, a rider can control the whole direction of travel. Or think of a rudder on a big ship. Relatively a small piece of wood or metal in comparison with the whole ship, and yet it has huge effects. In the same way the tongue is one of the smallest parts of our body, but it can have huge power to harm or to heal.

Jesus said that what comes out of the mouth comes from the heart. So if we have a clean heart, clean and kind language will come out. If we have a selfish heart, selfishness is going to come out. So many problems in schools, business, politics and families have come by people’s words.

So where does that leave us if we’ve been hurt by others’ words?

It may be that we need to talk with someone who said something, even a long time ago. We might need to share that we found it hard, and we’re still finding it hard. Perhaps the person will apologise about what they said in the heat of the moment. But perhaps that person is no longer in touch, or maybe they’ve even died. Well we can talk to God about it. We can tell him about the hurt that has come, and ask for his help to forgive and move on. It’s amazing the healing and forgiveness God can bring through his Son Jesus Christ.

But what if we know that we’ve hurt others by our words? Sticks and stones hurt, but words hurt deeper.

Well we may need to say sorry and mean it. That takes real guts, but most times the person will be grateful. And again talk to God about it. God can help us. Through his Son Jesus Christ, he can forgive the past, shape the present and change the future.

Thanks so much for listening to my words today.  

Charlie Newcombe 04MAR26.