Today’s Scripture Reading [November 3, 2009]
[All Scripture references are from King James Version]
Wherefore comfort yourself together, and edify one another, even as also ye do. [1 Thessalonians 5:11]
When was the last time you attended meeting? How did you and your colleagues feel after the meeting concluded? Did you and your colleagues feel elated? Or did you all feel disgusted or flabbergasted, and you wish you were not there!
My own personal experience can testify that most meetings I attended had failed to encourage or motivate people to improve their job performance. I could hardly remember of any meeting that I had attended elated my self-worth; we frequently encounter negative exchanges such as:
• Your ideas and suggestions were thrown out even before you could even finish what you wanted to say;
• Belittling of one another just to bring down a person’s self-worth;
• Finger-pointing to exonerate oneself from errors or customer complaints;
• Look of anger among the meeting participants;
• Use of threatening or intimidating words by our superior like “You will be fired if you make the same mistake again” or “Why are you so stupid; you should not have done it.”
• Don't tell me what to do! I have been with the company for 15 years.
All these sound too familiar! We don’t quite feel encourage after the meeting and quite to the contrary, we often feel quite discouraged and this may drive us to quit our job. There are countless trainings just to teach people “How to conduct effective meeting” and many companies are still facing problems associated with ineffective meetings even though they may have sent their employees to these trainings.
Besides business meetings, we may also inadvertently draw into foolish conversations when we socialized with our friends. Some of these careless and foolish conversations were not intentionally made to hurt others. We tend to be careless with the choice of our words especially with our friends. We made jokes at their expense and say to ourselves, "They should have no problem with these jokes.” We may well be wrong because words do hurt and they can hurt very deeply to the point that relationship can be severely affected. The Bible has therefore cautioned us to be careful and not to participate in foolish and filthy talks (Ephesians 5:4; Colossians 3:8) because God knows the destructive power of these conversations.
What exactly is ‘encouragement’, and how then do we encourage rather than discourage others? Webster dictionary defines encouragement as "to give courage or confidence to; to raise the hopes of; to help on by sympathetic advice and interests; to advise and make it easy for (someone to do something) to promote or stimulate; to strengthen." In contrast, discourage is defined as "to say or take away the courage of, to deter, to lessen enthusiasm for and so restrict or hinder."
Amazingly, our words have the power to build or tear others. Like a knife, the tongue has a sharp powerful edge that can be used to either heal or destroy. The knife in the hands of a skilled surgeon brings healing and life, but a knife in the hands of a felon brings death and destruction. Like the surgeon, we can study how to use our mouths to bring life to those around us. But it's not easy. The tongue is difficult to control and being in a wet place, is apt to slip and we may end up saying something that we ought not to have said in the first place. Hence, we must try consciously to control our tongue especially telling someone like ‘why are you so stupid’ or ‘you fool.’ Jesus has warned us that whosoever call someone a fool he will be in danger of casting into hell (Matthew 5:22).
God recognizes weakness in our speech and He has therefore given us many words of wisdom to remind us of the danger of misusing our tongue. The following are ten wisdom Bible verses (and there are many more in the Bible) that remind us to use our words in a more discerning manner and our words should be seasoned with salt, sweetened with honey, and nourishing to exalt others.
• Proverbs 10:11 - The mouth of a righteous man is a well of life: but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked.
• Proverbs 10:21 - The lips of the righteous feed many: but fools die for want of wisdom.
• Proverbs 12:6 - The words of the wicked are to lie in wait for blood: but the mouth of the upright shall deliver them.
• Proverbs 12:8 - There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword: but the tongue of the wise is health.
• Proverbs 14:3 - In the mouth of the foolish is a rod of pride: but the lips of the wise shall preserve them.
• Proverbs 15:2 - The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright: but the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness.
• Proverbs 15:26 - The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the LORD: but the words of the pure are pleasant words.
• Proverbs 16:23 - The heart of the wise teacheth his mouth, and addeth learning to his lips.
• Ecclesiastes 10:12 - The words of a wise man’s mouth are gracious; but the lips of a fool will swallow up himself.
• 1 Peter 3:10 - For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile.
[All Scripture references are from King James Version]
Wherefore comfort yourself together, and edify one another, even as also ye do. [1 Thessalonians 5:11]
When was the last time you attended meeting? How did you and your colleagues feel after the meeting concluded? Did you and your colleagues feel elated? Or did you all feel disgusted or flabbergasted, and you wish you were not there!
My own personal experience can testify that most meetings I attended had failed to encourage or motivate people to improve their job performance. I could hardly remember of any meeting that I had attended elated my self-worth; we frequently encounter negative exchanges such as:
• Your ideas and suggestions were thrown out even before you could even finish what you wanted to say;
• Belittling of one another just to bring down a person’s self-worth;
• Finger-pointing to exonerate oneself from errors or customer complaints;
• Look of anger among the meeting participants;
• Use of threatening or intimidating words by our superior like “You will be fired if you make the same mistake again” or “Why are you so stupid; you should not have done it.”
• Don't tell me what to do! I have been with the company for 15 years.
All these sound too familiar! We don’t quite feel encourage after the meeting and quite to the contrary, we often feel quite discouraged and this may drive us to quit our job. There are countless trainings just to teach people “How to conduct effective meeting” and many companies are still facing problems associated with ineffective meetings even though they may have sent their employees to these trainings.
Besides business meetings, we may also inadvertently draw into foolish conversations when we socialized with our friends. Some of these careless and foolish conversations were not intentionally made to hurt others. We tend to be careless with the choice of our words especially with our friends. We made jokes at their expense and say to ourselves, "They should have no problem with these jokes.” We may well be wrong because words do hurt and they can hurt very deeply to the point that relationship can be severely affected. The Bible has therefore cautioned us to be careful and not to participate in foolish and filthy talks (Ephesians 5:4; Colossians 3:8) because God knows the destructive power of these conversations.
What exactly is ‘encouragement’, and how then do we encourage rather than discourage others? Webster dictionary defines encouragement as "to give courage or confidence to; to raise the hopes of; to help on by sympathetic advice and interests; to advise and make it easy for (someone to do something) to promote or stimulate; to strengthen." In contrast, discourage is defined as "to say or take away the courage of, to deter, to lessen enthusiasm for and so restrict or hinder."
Amazingly, our words have the power to build or tear others. Like a knife, the tongue has a sharp powerful edge that can be used to either heal or destroy. The knife in the hands of a skilled surgeon brings healing and life, but a knife in the hands of a felon brings death and destruction. Like the surgeon, we can study how to use our mouths to bring life to those around us. But it's not easy. The tongue is difficult to control and being in a wet place, is apt to slip and we may end up saying something that we ought not to have said in the first place. Hence, we must try consciously to control our tongue especially telling someone like ‘why are you so stupid’ or ‘you fool.’ Jesus has warned us that whosoever call someone a fool he will be in danger of casting into hell (Matthew 5:22).
God recognizes weakness in our speech and He has therefore given us many words of wisdom to remind us of the danger of misusing our tongue. The following are ten wisdom Bible verses (and there are many more in the Bible) that remind us to use our words in a more discerning manner and our words should be seasoned with salt, sweetened with honey, and nourishing to exalt others.
• Proverbs 10:11 - The mouth of a righteous man is a well of life: but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked.
• Proverbs 10:21 - The lips of the righteous feed many: but fools die for want of wisdom.
• Proverbs 12:6 - The words of the wicked are to lie in wait for blood: but the mouth of the upright shall deliver them.
• Proverbs 12:8 - There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword: but the tongue of the wise is health.
• Proverbs 14:3 - In the mouth of the foolish is a rod of pride: but the lips of the wise shall preserve them.
• Proverbs 15:2 - The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright: but the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness.
• Proverbs 15:26 - The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the LORD: but the words of the pure are pleasant words.
• Proverbs 16:23 - The heart of the wise teacheth his mouth, and addeth learning to his lips.
• Ecclesiastes 10:12 - The words of a wise man’s mouth are gracious; but the lips of a fool will swallow up himself.
• 1 Peter 3:10 - For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile.
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