The
Right Word
(Minute Meditation - June 2004)
Benjamin Franklin once said, “Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.”
Benjamin Franklin was right on both counts. It is important to say the right thing in the right place and at the right time. Any of us who have had the misfortune of saying the right thing, but not when or where it should have been said, will appreciate the words of Solomon, “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.”
Then, as Ben Franklin continues, we all can remember having said the wrong thing when it would have been better to remain silent. Solomon says, “A fool uttereth all his mind, but a wise man keepeth it in till afterwards” and, “Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise.”
It is so important for us to stop and think before we speak. In a moment of weakness we can blurt out something that can do irreparable damage to another. “The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.” And once we have betrayed a trusted confidence or hurt someone with a snide comment, we cannot get it back.
Our words are important. In fact, words are a matter of life and death -- and it could be our own life or death that’s involved. Jesus tells us, “For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned,” which reinforces Solomon’s warning, “He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life: but he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction.”
A good example of the troubles we bring upon ourselves by careless speech is the prophet Moses, who God said was the meekest man on the face of the earth. The Psalmist tells us what Moses did in a moment of anger: “Because they provoked his spirit…he spake unadvisedly with his lips.” As a result, Moses was forbidden to lead Israel into the promised land. Truly, “whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue keepeth his soul from troubles.”
We need to choose very carefully what we say and when we say it and to whom we say it. We must not let our words wound others. We can do so much good by our words and so much harm. Again it was Solomon who tells us, “Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop: but a good word maketh it glad.”
We need to lift the hearts of those who are carrying heavy burdens by giving them a good word to encourage them. Look around and see — there are so many who are enduring trials and suffering, so many that a good word can lift up, “for the lips of the righteous feed many.” Solomon tells us, “A man hath joy by the answer of his mouth: and a word spoken in due season, how good is it!” and “the mouth of a righteous man is a well of life.”
People remember many years later the joy that was spread by a word spoken in season and the good it created. We may have forgotten a word of encouragement we gave to someone stooped over with a heavy heart, but that word may have changed the very course of his/her life at a moment when he was at a crossroads. So, as Benjamin Franklin said, “remember to say the right thing in the right place.”
Let us be conscious of the needs of others and try always to say the right thing. It was Mark Twain who said, “The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug.” Let our speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, so that we may be among those of whom it is said, “Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord.”
Robert J. Lloyd