"Timely Words"

The wise man penned these words of wisdom from the Lord: "A man has joy in an apt answer, and how delightful is a timely word." (Prov. 15:23) Timely words can be a wonderful thing to ones ears. People are not careful about their words. When something is stirred in the heart, they often speak without a thought of what they say and how it will affect others. I know I have done that in the past and it creates a lot of pain in the heart of another.

I have sat with couples, trying to help them through difficult situations and just when it seems there is going to be a breakthrough, one of them says an 'untimely' word. It destroys everything that has been worked toward.

In the recent past, I was speaking with a husband that was struggling spiritually. It was while we were on our congregational retreat. (Just a side note to help make sense of the statement made by the wife. I had been telling people all week we were keeping up with an Olympic runner that was making his way across Kansas to Denver and then up to our retreat. Of course people knew something was up and they were right!) I was trying to encourage this husband in his walk and shared with him how much his wife cared for his soul. I shared with him, "You wife loves you a lot and especially she loves your soul." I didn't know deeply that affected him. The next day his wife came to me and had the following conversation: "Thank you for speaking to my husband. We were walking yesterday and he reached out and took my arm. He has never done that before. We stopped walking and he looked at me and said, 'Brent told me that you love me!' I just smiled and said, 'Brent also told us there was an Olympic runner coming up from Denver!' That probably wasn't the proper thing to say, huh?" Timely words! It was rather funny to listen to her tell this and she is a very godly lady but there is no telling the affect it had on her husband!

We need to be careful what we say and how we say things. We need to heed to words from God's word, "Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear." (Eph. 4:29) The need of the moment...we need to consider the need of the moment. Use words that 'build up' (edify) and help a situation, not tear the other down. I am still working on this area of my life. Unwholesome, rotten words will only destroy! People use destructive words many times to try to control the other person to give into their selfish ways. That's ungodly and fleshly. We need to think about what we are going to say before we say it. We need to realize the impact a word can have in the ears and heart of another. We need to use timely words!