Watch Your Mouth

Have you ever said something and right away regretted it.  Either the comment sounded better in your head or maybe it never went through your brain on the way to your lips.  Some comments are made not because we believe they are true, but only for the impact they get.

There is an old saying that sticks and stones will break my bones but names will not hurt me.  We all know that's not true.  The things that we hear can hurt worse than any stone.

We all know words can lift us up or words can put us down.  We have great power in what we say, but with that great power comes great responsibility.  There are those people who say rude comments regularly.  Their excuse is, "I say what I think.  People can accept me or not."  I think that's too easy.  We don't get  free pass to say I can hurt people and if you don't like it, that's YOUR problem.  I think that we all have a responsibility to each other.

When little kids say bad words it is a common punishment to wash their mouth out with soap.  Let's clean the filth right out.  This of course is usually reserved for cuss words, not mean words.  It's more about the words than the context.  But context does matter.

And so does tone.  How we say things is at least as important as what we say.  I had a speech class once.  One of the lessons of the class is that the burden of communication falls on the communicator.  If you are sending the message it is important that you send it in a way that others will perceive it correctly.  

Ultimately you need to ask yourself if you are the kind of person that cares about other people or if you are indifferent to them.  If you care about people, make sure that your words show it.