The Words We Speak

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also the interests of others. Philippians 2:3-4

Have you ever done a heart check on your self only to find out that you may be a little more selfish than you thought you were? I'm pretty sure that there is at least a little bit of selfishness in all of us. Often we don't even recognize it until we examine our hearts, minds, and the words we speak. If we're not careful our selfishness can easily end up hurting those around us. When we get wrapped up in ourselves we don't even realize that our words are tearing down those we love. We have all justified our hurtful words. "I only said that because they said _____to me." "I stopped ______ because they don't do ______ anymore." We do it daily with our spouses, our family members, our friends, and sometimes even with strangers at the grocery store. We justify our hurtful words and actions by our own feelings of selfishness and insecurity. Sometimes it's simply because we don't think before we talk. Other times we say things just because we can. We don't realize that the words we speak can leave life long scars and create walls in our relationships. Have you ever thought about the words you speak to other people? Have you thought about the power your words have? Have you thought about the fact that your words will either build up or tear down the people around you? We have a choice every day to either speak life or death. How would your marriage change if you spent the day encouraging, prophesying life, and building up your spouse? How would your relationship with your parents or child change? How would you change? What would happen if we took Philippians 2:3-4 seriously and truly counted others as more significant than ourselves? We each have a choice today to make a difference in the lives around us. Be intentional in surrendering your selfishness and the words you speak. Build up and speak life over every person and ever situation you encounter today. Let the Lord use you to be an extension of His love an grace this week.