Words to Bless

I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
My soul makes it's boast in the Lord; let the humble hear and be glad.
O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together!
Psalms 34:1-3

The subject of words has been the topic of many conversations of late and I don't think it's by accident that I read about words in my morning study. I'm going to share a bit of that with you for the purpose of prayer and Holy Spirit examination. But first, I humbly ask you to purposefully commit the area of your words to prayer, and ask God to show you the stark reality of your own mouth speak and then set about taking your soul to task to bring your words under the submission of Christ Jesus. Why do I say this so emphatically? Because I know that my own harshly spoken words have been cutting instruments far too many times. And were it not for God's compassionate grace and the Spirit's changing work in my life I would not be here, doing what I do to encourage others to hope for better; to pursue change, trusting in the transforming work of Perfect Grace.
What I was reading this morning referred to a study done by marital researchers in order to uncover the processes that destroy marital unions. Couples were studied over the course of years, even decades to retrace their steps all the way back to their wedding day. What happened different in those who stayed together over those who did not? The researchers were surprised by their findings.
It was not how much they loved each other or how much they fought or what they fought about that determined their durability. What they were surprised to discover had the most significant impact was the use of words. Yep, you read correctly - WORDS.
And I quote, "Among those who would ultimately stay together, 5 out of every 100 comments made about each other were putdowns. Among couples who would later split, 10 of every 100 comments were insults. That gap magnified over the following decade, until couples heading downhill were flinging five times as many cruel and invalidating comments at each other as the happy couples. Hostile putdowns act as cancerous cells that, if unchecked, erode the relationship over time...In the end, relentless unremitting negativity takes control and the couple can't get through a week without major blowups." (U.S. News & World Report, February 21, 1994, Page 67.)

Oh sisters, let the mouth that we open to bless the Lord, be a mouth that uses words to bless each and every one God gives us opportunity to use our words on. May we all be stunned silent before we open our mouths ever again to utter any form of put down -even the ones that are so pervasively common that we tend to excuse as "just kidding" comments. You know what I'm talking about.
I guarantee you this is going to be hard to do. But as God is sanctifying you and refining you, others will see, and God will be glorified.
Stephanie