THE POWER OF WORDS
Proverbs
25:18 A
man who bears false witness against his neighbor is like a war club, or a
sword, or a sharp arrow.
A trumpeter was once captured by the enemy. He
pleaded with his captors: “Please spare me! I have no gun, I am not guilty of
any crime. I have not killed a single one of your soldiers. I only carry this
poor brass trumpet and play it when I’m told to.”
“That is the very reason for putting you to death,”
his captors replied. “For, while you do not yourself fight, your trumpet stirs
up all the others to battle. It causes many others to kill!”
So it is with our criticism of others. We may not
hate, mistrust, or avoid the person we criticize, but our criticism can cause
others to manifest these feelings and behaviors.
There once was a woman to whom gossip and criticism
were so utterly distasteful that whenever someone brought up something negative
about a person, she would say, “Come, let’s go and ask if this is true.” The
tale-bearer was always so taken aback that he or she would beg to be excused.
But the determined woman would insist on escorting the reluctant soul to the
subject of the tale to verify its truth or to hear the other point of view. In
time, no one repeated a tale or voiced a criticism in her presence.
Build up your friends, don’t
tear them down. Pick your friends but not to pieces.