Watch Your Mouth

Introduction

Kondraty Ryleyev was sentenced to be hanged for his part in an unsuccessful uprising against the Russian czar Nicholas I in December 1825. But the rope broke and Ryleyev, bruised and battered, fell to the ground, got up, and said, "In Russia they do not know how to do anything properly, not even how to make a rope." An accident of this sort usually resulted in a pardon, so a messenger was sent to the czar to know his pleasure. Nicholas asked, "What did he say?"

"Sire, he said that in Russia they do not even know how to make a rope properly." "Well, let the contrary be proved," said the czar.

The words we speak carry a lot of weight!

We Spend 1/5 of Our Lives Speaking

That amounts to an average of 16,000 words per day!

That’s enough words to fill a 50 page book per day!

That’s 365 books containing 5,840,000 words per year!

How many of the books in your library of speaking were books of angry words? Words of gossip? How many of your books are filled with careless words that might have brought harm to others?

Why Should We Choose Our Words Wisely?

The New International Version Chapter 12

18 The words of the reckless pierce like swords,

but the tongue of the wise brings healing.

1. Words Have the Power to DESTROY

There is a scar on my right arm that is a reminder of a cut that I received when I was 10 years old. reckless words are like the swords that inflict deep cuts that leave everlasting scars as reminders of their destruction.

2. Words Have the Power to HEAL

Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations (6325 Doctors, Watch Your Words)

Doctors, Watch Your WordsMedicine at Work, published by the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association, has stressed the critical importance of words spoken in surgery.As the anesthetic is given for surgery, deadly fear may strike the patient when he hears someone say, “I’m going to shoot him now,” or, “Hook up the monitor.” “Monitor” to the drugged patient may sound like “monster.” Or a doctor may declare in disgust, “This isn’t my day!”Dr. Paul J. Moses told a medical audience in San Francisco that “the same directions given by two different physicians could help or fail.” One doctor’s voice, Dr. Moses suggested, might make the medicine work, but the other’s might reveal doubt and the medicine would fail.

BIG IDEA: Choose Your Words WISELY, Because They Have the Power to DESTROY or HEAL.