I was listening to a book today and something came up. To put it in the most general terms would be something along the lines of, "Hurting is easy. It's healing that is hard."
...and I haven't been able to get that thought out of my mind today. So, let's examine.
Knives. It is really easy to cut someone. A stranger. Ourselves. A friend. A child by accident. Yet, to use a knife to heal and help requires skill, wisdom, and precision. Surgeons use knives to remove infection, to save the body when a limb has died, and to correct other types of internal brokenness. Few can heal with a knife, but almost anyone can hurt with one.
How about words? Even the Bible talks about the dual power of the tongue. Specifically, Proverbs 18:21 says, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue..."
We know this is true though. How many times have you lashed out at someone verbally and caused tremendous damage? How many times has it happened to you? The person doing it doesn't even have to realize what they've done. Their intentions may have been good, but it was the wrong time, the wrong word, or just done in a careless way. And the help they meant to give (or the joke to tell) becomes a hurt.
Parents. How many times have we used our words to hurt our children instead of helping and healing them? ...and trust me. While children are resilient, their psyche is still being affected. I may use my words to try to heal 100 times, but if I use the same mouth to hurt even once, that is what sticks in my child's mind the next time we are having an argument.
Spouses. Same thing. How easy is it to use our words to hurt our spouses?? How much harder to make up and correct things? It's easier to ignore the pain and hope it just goes away than it is to actively use our words to heal the wounds.
There are others areas this applies to as well, but these were the two on my mind. If you can think of others, or even ones that this "easier to hurt than to heal" principle does not apply to, comment below or on Facebook. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
May we all find ourselves actively seeking to heal and not to hurt in what we do, think, and say!
To God be the glory!
...and I haven't been able to get that thought out of my mind today. So, let's examine.
Knives. It is really easy to cut someone. A stranger. Ourselves. A friend. A child by accident. Yet, to use a knife to heal and help requires skill, wisdom, and precision. Surgeons use knives to remove infection, to save the body when a limb has died, and to correct other types of internal brokenness. Few can heal with a knife, but almost anyone can hurt with one.
How about words? Even the Bible talks about the dual power of the tongue. Specifically, Proverbs 18:21 says, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue..."
We know this is true though. How many times have you lashed out at someone verbally and caused tremendous damage? How many times has it happened to you? The person doing it doesn't even have to realize what they've done. Their intentions may have been good, but it was the wrong time, the wrong word, or just done in a careless way. And the help they meant to give (or the joke to tell) becomes a hurt.
Parents. How many times have we used our words to hurt our children instead of helping and healing them? ...and trust me. While children are resilient, their psyche is still being affected. I may use my words to try to heal 100 times, but if I use the same mouth to hurt even once, that is what sticks in my child's mind the next time we are having an argument.
Spouses. Same thing. How easy is it to use our words to hurt our spouses?? How much harder to make up and correct things? It's easier to ignore the pain and hope it just goes away than it is to actively use our words to heal the wounds.
There are others areas this applies to as well, but these were the two on my mind. If you can think of others, or even ones that this "easier to hurt than to heal" principle does not apply to, comment below or on Facebook. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
May we all find ourselves actively seeking to heal and not to hurt in what we do, think, and say!
To God be the glory!
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