Thursday, March 12, 2015

Walking In Love - Speaking The Best About Others

"He who covers a transgression seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates friends."
Proverbs 17:9 (NKJV)

We all face choices every day about different things: what we do, where we go, and what we say.  Some of the choices we make may not be entirely up to us because of obligations and commitments we have.  What we do depends on who we are, whether we are single or married, have children, and so on.  Where we go also depends somewhat on other factors, like what our occupation is, where we live, and things like this.  But one choice that all of us have, that is really just up to us, is the choice of what we will say about ourselves and others; no one chooses our words for us.

We should say the right things about ourselves, based on what the Bible says, but do we realize the importance of how we talk about others?  Do our words help or hurt?  Do we talk about other people the way we would like them to talk about us?  What do we do when we hear something negative about another person?  We have all heard bad things about others, whether it was something they had intentionally done wrong or just a mistake.  But should we repeat everything we hear?  Do we think about what the results will be if we repeat something bad that we have heard about someone else? 

We have a choice with what we hear, are we just going to repeat it to others and possibly create more problems or are we going to walk in love and watch our words?  This does not mean that we overlook problems or ignore something that is wrong, but it does mean that we don't have to repeat everything negative we hear or know about other people.  Our words can help keep people together or our words can separate even close friends and family members.  Walking in love means that we speak the best about others, even when we know something about them that is not so good.

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