Is Your Word Choice Gentle?

“A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.”  Proverbs 15:1

Have you ever truly sat back and thought about how you respond to your spouse vs. other people?  What is the response you give to other people and what is the response you give to your spouse?  Is your response filled with gentleness or is it filled with sarcasm, frustration, and unkind words.  I’m guessing most of us have a sense of gentleness when speaking to others and our spouses get the not so gentle answers.  I am not saying we never speak gently to our spouse; however, we probably tend to use more harsh words with our spouse than other people. 

Scripture says, “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.”  So if we adopt the assumption that we are saving the harsh words for our spouse, we are then extending the invitation for anger in our relationship.  Let’s take this to another level, Ephesians 4:26-27 notes, “In your anger do not sin.  Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.”  If anger is present in the relationship and we are not to let the sun go down until the anger is taken care of there is going to be a lack of sleep for both.  When we lose sleep our ability to be gentle decreases.  It is almost a vicious cycle.

So instead of extending the invitation for anger we need to focus on extending the invitation for gentleness.  That invitation should not just include gentle words, but gentle actions as well.  Take a moment to think about what you are going to say or do before doing it.  Does your answer turn away wrath or bring it into the home?  This is not going to be an easy task all the time, especially when tiredness or frustration are present.  What we do have is a Savior that promises to guide us and we have forgiveness when we screw up. 

Cheryl