{"id":8826,"date":"2015-11-02T00:05:00","date_gmt":"2015-11-02T06:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/?p=8826"},"modified":"2015-11-02T09:58:13","modified_gmt":"2015-11-02T15:58:13","slug":"words-as-precision-weapons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/words-as-precision-weapons\/","title":{"rendered":"Words As Precision Weapons"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/prision-weapons.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-8827 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/prision-weapons.jpg\" alt=\"How kitchen knives and our words can be dangerous weapons when used incorrectly.\" width=\"500\" height=\"334\" srcset=\"https:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/prision-weapons.jpg 500w, https:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/prision-weapons-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/prision-weapons-449x300.jpg 449w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><em>Let your speech always be gracious, <\/em><br \/>\n<em>seasoned with salt, <\/em><br \/>\n<em>so that you know how you should respond to each one.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Colossians 4:6<\/em><\/p>\n<p>About a month ago, I was wrangling the label off a jar when the knife slipped and jabbed my left hand right below the thumb. A tiny puncture, no more than a centimeter long. Very little pain. Very little blood. But very well-aimed. Deep enough to slice the tendon to my thumb in two. Which resulted in hand surgery, almost 2 weeks in a ginormous splint, 4\u20136 weeks in a smaller splint, and months of physical therapy to regain motion and full functionality. All that because I didn\u2019t stop to consider the consequences of using a knife as a weapon in a wrestling match with a jar label. As my daughter so sweetly put it, \u201cMom, you\u2019ve made handling kitchen knives with impunity your hobby.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I am typing, the splint firmly in place, and contemplating the similarities between that kitchen knife and my words. Sometimes, I think carefully and prayerfully about what I am about to say. I lean into God and ask him to speak wisdom beyond my own through me. In those cases, God consistently uses my words to heal relationships and create unity.<\/p>\n<p>Too be honest, those situations are often the exceptions rather than the rule. More often, I speak without thinking. If I do pause before speaking, it isn\u2019t to pray. I pause to shape my words into weapons and then aim them at soft spots where they will plunge deep. Once that\u2019s done, I let the words fly off my tongue and hit their target with astonishing precision.<\/p>\n<p>On the surface, the wounds I cause appear tiny. Bloodless. Painless. But over time, the damage below the surface becomes evident. Hurt feelings. Misunderstandings. Severed relationships that require massive amounts of time and energy to heal and always leave a scar. Nothing is ever the same after my barbed words spew forth without considering the consequences of using words as weapons.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m not the first person with this problem. James 3:6 describes how New Testament believers used the power of speech to harm others. <em>The tongue is also a fire. It exists among our members as a world of malice, defiling the whole body and setting the entire course of our lives on fire.<\/em> Not a pretty picture.<\/p>\n<p>Paul also talks about the power of the tongue and sprinkles advice to believers throughout his letters about how to harness their power. Colossians 4:6 is my favorite. Instead of dwelling on what believers shouldn\u2019t do\u2013because if we\u2019re honest, we already know what shouldn\u2019t be said and still chose to say it anyway\u2013Paul describes how we should speak. <em>With grace, enhanced with salt so the listeners will savor, eat, and be nourished by them.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Those words are ones believers should commit to memory, to have ready to pull out and pray in the moments we are tempted to speak before thinking. When we do so, our moment of contemplation and dependence upon God\u2019s wisdom instead of trusting our own can avert accidents. It can strengthen relationships rather than sever them. The pause to pray Colossians 4:6 allows us to channel time and energy toward kingdom building rather than damage control. They\u2019re words I\u2019ll be reminded to pray every time a glance at my hand reminds me of both the power of ordinary words\u2026and kitchen knives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you know how you should respond to each one. Colossians 4:6 About a month ago, I was wrangling the label off a jar when the knife slipped and jabbed my left hand right below the thumb. A tiny puncture, no more than a centimeter [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8827,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[3043,2273,3042],"class_list":["post-8826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-newsletter-column","tag-colossians-46","tag-kindness","tag-speech"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Words As Precision Weapons - Jolene Philo Staging<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Words As Precision Weapons - Jolene Philo Staging\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you know how you should respond to each one. Colossians 4:6 About a month ago, I was wrangling the label off a jar when the knife slipped and jabbed my left hand right below the thumb. 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