Perhaps one of the greatest dilemmas of our present-day is the shocking lack of clear and compassionate communication.

While we do have loads of information coming to us at warp speed and a massive number of communication platforms … tragically, we are more divided than ever before.

We shout, we berate, we argue and debate … and it seems that we just can not be heard or understood!

As sophisticated as we may be … we have somehow managed to become boorish with regard to compassionate communication … and we see this at every level of society … everywhere!

What has happened to us … and how can we turn this around?

Well, here is a great place to start …

Measuring Our Words … And Being Sure To Get This Right

There are so many biblical exhortations that call out to us … literally compelling us to heed this warning.

I love the way Joe Thorn puts it to us in this article, “Shut Your Mouth: Why We Need to Measure Our Words”

“As Christians, our words are to be a “fountain of life,” able to “feed many.” They are “choice silver.” (Prov. 10:11, 20-21). Most of us are very familiar with the words of caution that we are given in James 1:19, “Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger.” But I also think most of us struggle with all three imperatives. The days of thoughtful correspondence via pen and paper are long gone, and now is the time of immediate communication where we easily “fire off” an e-mail or tweet thoughts before we have sufficient time to think through our own words, much less try to understand the words of another. I want the church to be a people of words. Good words, timely words, true words, life-giving words, thoughtful words, precise words. But I also want us to be people who seek to understand that we might speak more accurately and minister more fruitfully.”

These words are so powerfully spoken … and they are so painfully true!

God is looking for us as His sons and daughters to be extremely attentive to measuring our words because …

▪ they either build up or tear down
▪ they will be remembered and repeated
▪ they can never be taken back
▪ they are being measured in heaven

We desperately need a stream of life-giving words to counter the rancor and devour that is consuming our world.

Measuring Our Words … And Being Sure To Get This Right

This mandate is ours to honor, this message is ours to obey and this moment is ours to redeem … and this means that we must measure our words!

Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.
(Colossians 4:6 ESV)

Saying yes to all of this,

-Terry-