Words that Hurt

Psalm 19:14 says "May the words of mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing to you, Oh Lord my Rock, my Redeemer,"(NIV version). We are so careful, most of the times with the words of our mouths. We watch our words most days, and maybe not as much other days! And are careful not to hurt others with our mouths or to make Christ look bad because of our language. This may be less true the closer we are to people, and worst of all to ourselves.

That brings me to my point. We might watch our words, but do we watch the meditations of our heart? Maybe we are careful not to say the words that hurt, but do we allow our minds to sit there and think them? Especially when the negative and hurtful words are about ourselves.

I know, myself as a woman, tend to think so negatively about myself. I compare myself to others and rarely do I stack up. If I make a mistake I am the first to condemn myself. But condemnation is not from God. Condemnation is not a place God wants us to be. We are fearfully and wonderfully made, the scriptures say, so we must give thanks to God for every situation. If we are falling short of the mark, we must be quick to repent and forgive ourselves. If the negative talk is about a physical characteristic, we have to remember that God designed us before we were born and He knew what He wanted us to be, we have to be thankful for every gift we have.

If our meditations take us to think negatively on someone else we have to remember that we are to love our neighbor. That each person who wrongs us, (truly wrongs us or imagined wrongs) is a creation of God and someone who God loves. We don't know what God is doing in their lives.

The key is to replace the negative meditations with positive ones. We have to get rid of the negative track playing in our mind and fix our thoughts on the positive things. If we are angered, pray for peace and the person who wronged you. This is a difficult sin to overcome, but I pray that the meditations of your mind are pleasing to God!