Words

Please read this verse out loud. "Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith." Proverbs 15:17 Please tell me that the idea of the stalled ox caught you off guard for a second. A couple weeks ago, Tanner was typing the blog for me. I asked him to copy and paste Proverbs 17:17. However, he accidentally copied and pasted the above verse instead. When I asked him to read it to me, at first, the stalled ox registered in my brain like a stalled car. Words can be funny like that. Sometimes, when I hear the word "orthodox", I think of the two orthopedic surgeons Sean works with, haha! But seriously, we need to be careful with our words. Several times in the past weeks, I've heard the verse from Ephesians 5:19, which says "speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord". I was thinking that we don't really do that, however, my friends and I send each other song links all the time, and many people have spoken scripture or sent it to me throughout this trial. Some visitors even sing to me. I have to admit, for the past couple of months, I've been discouraged, and my speech, at least to my family, has been rather negative. The Bible says that death and life are in the power of the tongue, and that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. I don't like to think that my heart is overflowing with negativity. For a time, I was asking God to take me home, as it didn't seem to me like he was going to heal me. I had a pretty big scare with some breathing problems a week ago, and I realized that I really don't want to go yet unless it truly is God's will for me. Don't get me wrong, I know that to depart and be with God is going to be glorious. But, as Tanner keeps reminding me, if God hasn't taken me yet, then I'm here for a reason. I'm trying to be much more positive in my thoughts and speech, and to truly trust God for the strength to endure. I've gotten back to listening to praise songs, which really helps. The Bible says much about speech and how we are to speak to one another. I think I'll save those verses for another blog entry. Suffice it to say, for now, that we need to do our best to build others up instead of tearing them down. With God's help, we can do it.