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“The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil. But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” (Matt 12:35-37, NASU)

Garry Moore once devised an answer to take care of crank letters. “The enclosed letter,” he would write, “arrived on my desk a few days ago. I am sending it to you in the belief that as a responsible citizen you should know that some idiot is sending out letters over your signature.” —James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited

    Ouch!

    What would it be like if people had a way of returning our words to us in a manner similar to that used by Garry Moore? Some of us surely would have to get a bigger mailbox just to handle the number of replies. Imagine, a stuffed mailbox full of our own returned words!

    Words are the tools we use to communicate with one another. We use them to get across more than just our thoughts; they’re essential to communicate our emotions, plans and dreams, pains and discomforts of life, explanations and questions, and a host of other things. Take away words, and communication may not necessarily become impossible, but it surely becomes difficult. Words are the tools that make it easier to get across to others what is going through our own minds.

    That’s part of the problem. As a tool, words makes it easier for us to communicate. That’s good, but maybe some things ought to be more difficult to say. Let me illustrate what I mean.

Maybe some things ought to be more difficult to say.

    When I was about twelve years old, I got interested in wood carving. Not that I was any good, but I did appreciate what could be done with the variety of knives used to shape bland pieces of wood. My only tool was an ancient pocket knife. I whittled away, practicing cuts and curls, wedges, and other “artistic” efforts. Then one day, I saw exactly what I needed. It was a set of wood carving knives. There were curved points, angled points, chisel points, all sorts of tools that I’d never had. The man at the hardware store had one piece of advice. “Be careful,” he said. “They’re mighty sharp.”

    I remember going home that day, opening up my carving knives, and carefully selecting what looked like a concave chisel-point knife. Not really knowing how to hold the instrument, or how much pressure to put on it, or which direction to make the cut, I launched into carving. Within three strokes of the knife point, I managed to plunge the tip of that knife deeply into my left thumb. That was about 40 years ago. I still have the scar.

    My point is this: be careful with words. Don’t use them recklessly. Listen and speak with caution and purpose. Don’t just blast away. You’re likely to plunge a word deeply into someone’s heart, even if you don’t mean to do it. And if you mean to do use words to injure, well that’s even worse.

    Now, back to that stuffed mailbox with which we began our thoughts. What would you expect in today’s mail if people could return your inappropriate words?