Word Can Leave Permanent Scars
A wise man's heart guides his mouth.
-- Proverbs 16:23a
Words are so powerful. We know that. We use them as swords in anger. We pour them out like honey as we seek our own way. We offer them up as chocolate to those we like. We turn them bitter when we don't get our own way.
But the true power of words comes in that they can never, ever be retrieved. Once they're said, they remain forever. Nothing we can do or say will ever erase them.
A dear friend was offering an example in a class one day. She'd actually witnessed a youth director using this illustrator with her students. She took a piece of unblemished wood and showed it to everyone. In my mind I see a piece of white pine, soft and light, sort of like the skin we wear on our earthly bodies.
Hurtful words are like nails being hammered into that wood, she said. They damage the exterior and then go in, scaring the interior as well.
Apologies and regrets remove the nails. Time may even sand down the roughness of the marks. But the scars remain. The wood will never be the same as it was before the nails pierced it.
That's what angry, hurtful words do to us and to others. We are wise to guard our tongues and think through our words before we speak. What we may see as justified in the moment, may have consequences far beyond what we'd ever imagined.
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