Speaking Gold and Silver

Sometimes I am a failure of epic proportions. I don't say this because I am having a bad day or a low self-esteem moment. We are all victims of this thinking from time to time. No matter how hard we try to do everything right, sometimes we manage to mess up a two car funeral. I wake up everyday determined to have patience and speak kindly to my husband and my children, but inevitably by the end of the day, I have spoken something to hurt someone's feelings. No matter what stage of life you're in, you have to deal with people and dealing with people can sometimes get ugly. We hurt the ones we love, the ones we live with, the ones we work with and play with. We hurt our friends and we hurt those we hardly know. But there's good news - we cannot take back the hurtful things we say, but we can ask for forgiveness. Better yet, we can grant forgiveness. Just as we hurt others with our words and actions, we have been hurt by the words and actions of others. After all holding on to a grudge hurts you more than the person who inflicted that pain on you. There's a verse in Proverbs I especially like. It says that "a word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver." I got a clearer picture of that a few years ago when silver and gold jewelry became popular. It was just the right mix and made both the silver and gold stand out beautifully. That is what our "fitly spoken" words are. Beautiful. I hope today that someone speaks kindness to you and that you have the opportunity to speak kindness to others. You might not get it right every time, as I'm sure I won't, but words spoken in love can make something beautiful.