Words Are Like Dynamite

Words are like dynamite. They can either be used powerfully for good or used powerfully for evil. Colossians 4:6 says, “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.”

How can we speak with grace, seasoned with salt? When I was growing up, I never liked eating beef liver, but when I got married, I discovered I had a beef-liver-eating wife! One day she served a beautiful meal. The meat smelled and tasted delicious. I said, “Honey, what is this? This meat is really good.”

My wife, LaVerne, grinned from ear to ear. “It’s liver!” She had seasoned it with the right kind of seasoning, and I liked it.

If you feel like you need to share correction with a struggling person to help him or her to get back on the right course, season your speech with grace. In other words, say it in a way he or she can receive it. How we say it (with the right attitude) can be as important, if not more important, as what we actually say. Even a word of correction seasoned with grace will tell someone, “I care about you, and you can make it.” The Bible tells us to speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15).