Tuesday 21st April Daily Message

Dear Reader

All our conversations today are usually and necessarily conducted by using texts, phones, Facebook and indeed any other social medium that does not involve us meeting in person. I think some folk are still using carrier pigeons as well. We all want to talk and meet one another but we can’t for the time being at least, so my conversations with you will continue each day by email.

Even on social media what we say and how we say it is very important and can have long and lasting consequences. We rarely ever forget an insult or cutting remark. It used to be said that “sticks and stones may break your bones but names will never hurt you”. You and I know this to be nonsense. Many a person’s sense of worth and self esteem have been shredded by deliberate or careless and tactless comments, wounding comments that are not easily healed. Mental health issues are rife these days and probably have always been, I think it’s just that people are a bit more open don’t you?

Unless you have the mental fortitude of a plank of timber you will be susceptible to negative criticism and comment. For example if you receive 100 complimentary messages and just one uncomplimentary, perhaps nasty too, tell me which would occupy your mind the most. For sure, it won’t be any of the 100.

Criticism, however, is not a bad word, it is indeed helpful, and we can all learn from one another but how we speak is at the heart of it all. Gentlemen are not always gentle and ladies are not always ladylike in speech.

What can we say today that will help and not hinder, what can we say today that will be as soothing as the ‘tree of life’? Sometimes it’s better that we do not speak at all.

Today I ask you to think/meditate on these things.

God bless you!

Jim

JBoag@churchofscotland.org.uk

PROVERBS 15: 1-5