Precious Words

A friend of my parents passed away recently.  The family needed help cleaning out the house and my parents are helping.  It is almost similar to a hoarder situation with brand-new never opened things as well as piles of junk and trash.  A big mess.

While we were there, my mom took us over.  In exchange for helping the family clean this up, my parents are able to keep/sell anything there.  There were boxes and boxes of unopened books, lots of dishes, personal items, furniture, cars, you name it.

It was such a strange feeling going through this house.  All of this stuff was important and special to someone at some point and now is reduced to a pile of junk being picked over by complete strangers.
There were even pictures and birth certificates that will eventually be trashed.   So sad...

And I've been thinking ever since about how everything we accumulate in this world will eventually come to nothing.   All the energy, affections, money, and time we pour into earthly junk will be cast into fire.

The only thing that will remain for eternity is Kingdom work.   And I've been reminded again how closely I need to stick to my Bible to understand what the work is.

A verse I've been pondering a couple days is Jeremiah 15:19...
"If you utter what is precious, and not what is worthless, you shall be as my mouth."

Precious words vs worthless words.

This comes on the cusp of our catch phrase for March which is "pleasant words".  It's something the kids and I have been working on all month.  We are memorizing Eph 4:29-5:2 which talks about using our words to build up others instead of tearing them down, not grieving the Holy Spirit, putting aside anger, and being imitators of God.

We love others by prayer, words, and deeds.  I am praying that God will fill my mouth with precious words for others instead of sarcasm, judgmental condemnation, anger, thoughtlessness, and even an impatient tone.

I want to love the people in my life better and a good place to start is with precious words.  In Luke it says that the words of our mouths come from the wellspring of our hearts.  Our mouth reflects our true person.  So I am praying that God will change me from the inside and it will flow out freely to those I love.