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Life is short and very precious. I am on an impromptu visit to the East Coast dealing with a spate of deaths in the family. Due to the weather my flight was cancelled. As I sit here working from home my dad and I are having sporadic conversation. He's lived a long life but one of the things he remembers is the words from the hymn below that he learned in Sunday School. The first time he mentioned this poem to me was about two years ago. At that time I wrote the entire text down, because I could not find it when I googled it. Today I googled it and found the actual text.
Prayer for Daily Grace- by John George Fleet
Words
are things of little cost
Quickly
spoken, quickly lost;
Witnesses
at God’s right hand,
And
their testimony bear
For
us, or against us there.
Oh,
how often ours have been
Idle
words and words of sin!
Words
of anger, scorn or pride
Or
deceit, our faults to hide,
Envious
tales,of strife unkind
Leaving
bitter thoughts behind.
Grant
us Lord from day to day,
Strength
to watch and grace to pray:
May
our lips, from sin kept free,
Love
to speak and sing of thee
Till
in heaven we learn to raise
Hymns
of everlasting praise.
My dad learned this in Sunday School and these words, the words of the poem have stuck with him. It is the fact that words are precious, and once said they can't be unsaid. It may be why he appears quiet and tries to be so careful when he speaks. But he also acknowledged we've all made mistakes with our words.
Going forward, I'm sure I'll always hear his voice in my head saying, "Words are things of little cost, quickly spoken, quickly lost.." in that very strong Bajan accent.
Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. James 1:19 [NLT]
Are you careful with your words? Is there something you do that cautions you before you speak? If you were reckless with your words, what do you do to correct the situation?
I always try to be but when I trip over myself, I am quick to apologize with deep sincerity. It is never my intention to hurt ANYONE . . . ever but words, spoken in haste, can hurt. Knowing that, I am extra careful with people I love . . . especially when I have to say things they might not like to hear. In those instances, I either get really serious and use a softer voice or I use humor. So far, so good.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about the reason you need to be on the east coast and I hope you have a safe flight back home.