Sometimes we see things that we wish we could unsee. And
sometimes we say things that we wish we could unsay. We all say things we
regret in moments of anger, frustration, or even unhealthy levels of
transparency.
When our children were young, we had a family devotional on
the permanency of what we say. We gave each child a paper plate and full tube
of tooth paste and asked them to squeeze the entire tube onto the plate. They had a blast doing their
assignment!! You know what came next. When they finished, we said “Ok, now put
it all back in the tube.” Words are like that.
Words carry weight.
Spoken or written, words weigh in on the heavy side.
Hurtful words can have crushing weight.
Words cannot be unsaid.
We can try to keep our words from doing damage with a few
prevention practices.
Practice saying less.
Listen more. Talk less.
Use brevity.
The more words you speak,
the less they mean. So what good are they? [Ecc
6:11, NLT]
Pause before you say it.
Count. Take a breath.
Find a softer way to say it.
Decide not to say it at all.
The heart of the godly
thinks carefully before speaking; [Prov 15:28a,
NLT]
Kind words are like honey –
sweet to the soul and healthy for the body. [Prov
16:24, NLT]
Wise words bring approval,
but fools are destroyed by their own words. [Ecc
10:12, NLT]
But when you say something
you regret, here are four ways to try to make repairs.
Own the mistake
When I said … to you, I was
wrong.
Apologize
I’m sorry. [period – no buts]
Empathize
That must have made you feel
…
Ask forgiveness
Will you forgive me?
These four actions won’t put the toothpaste back in the tube,
but they will clean up some of the mess. Give it a try. It may feel awkward.
But it may mend a wound in a relationship.
