The Holes in the Post

Do you ever think back to when you were a child, to a time when you first learned a very valuable lesson about life? We all learned many lessons while we were growing up, but we'll always have memories of those lessons that had a huge impact on our life. Something I struggled with while I was growing up was keeping control of my mouth, mostly because I simply didn't understand how big of an impact my words had on other people. My mom shared with me an illustration to help me understand just that, and it actually has some new meaning for me today. She told me a story of a young boy who was helping someone paint a fence. Each time the boy would get angry, he would go back to a part that was nicely painted and hammer nails into the wood. After the boy realized what he had done was wrong, he pulled out the nails. When he did this several times, he realized that even though he tried to correct what he did wrong, there were still visible holes in the new paint where his nails had been.

I was able to eventually learn the lesson that words have a lasting effect on people's hearts, but that was only part of the lesson. Most often, when we think about someone being hurt, we think about physical bodily injury. In reality, some of the greatest pain we could ever experience can be the result of mere words. Aside from hurtful words, I don't know many things that can affect us just as severely thirty years from now as they did today.

Although my first lesson with this did not come from the Bible, it is a subject that many New Testament writers devoted a great deal of time to. We all know how hurtful words can be, but something we may not understand completely is how much effort we must put into controlling our mouth. We may not think of our tongue as a very powerful weapon, but James 3:3-18 shows us just how dangerous it can be. Psalm 140:3 says, "They make their tongues as sharp as a serpent's; the poison of vipers is on their lips."

I have in no way mastered the skill of keeping every possibly hurtful thought to myself instead of sharing it, but what I find throughout Scripture are more reasons for me to try even harder. It doesn't matter if we struggle with casual gossip or malicious slander, it can all hurt the same and the pain can be long lasting. Paul had a solution to this problem that he shared with the people at Ephesus. In Ephesians 4:29, he instructs them to use their mouths only for the building up of others. I know this is a foreign idea and almost anti-culture to the people who love to share all of their opinions with others, but maybe anti-culture is exactly what we need.

It's no secret that Christian living is something we need help with from other people around us, and this particular subject is no exception. I'm always grateful when I find myself in company that doesn't let me gossip or slander someone without kindly and lovingly helping me notice what I did. It's amazing the difference I see in my actions simply because of what someone else had the courage to point out.