40 Days of Prayer - Phil Leftwich

 WORDS

Words. . .

we best tend well to how they’re used
lest they escape our tongues carelessly,
or we cast them forth in spears of print
that break an unexpecting  tender heart.
Words deserve our very best
at efforts to refine our thoughts
and state our passions fervently,
defining ourselves not better than
those to whom our words are sent.

We do best to tend our language
as one would tend a flower bed,
weeding carefully and with restraint,
mindful of the soil in which we plant
our sentiments and heartfelt hopes.
Words can encourage and inspire,
not destroy, defame, revile
those we find hard to like or love.

Our vocabulary might well include
love and peace and joy and hope,
recitations that restore the hearer’s soul
and empower the sender’s sense of self.
The speaker’s gain is in the saying
of words that bear the weight of care
for words themselves are gifts of grace.
Our words used well with good intent
can tame the angry human heart.
 

Phil Leftwich
Executive Presbyter
Presbytery of Middle Tennessee