Presence

Heavenly Father, may I know your loving embrace, now and always.

Scripture Reading

Proverbs 15:1-2,4 NRSVue

A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. The tongue of the wise adorns knowledge, but the mouths of fools pour out folly. A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.

Reflection

A wise woman once told me: If you’ve never heard my no, you can’t believe my yes. Constant praise leaves us wondering if it’s really too good to be true. If no one tells us what we can do better, then how do we know we need to improve? We need to learn how to give feedback – not good/bad, postive/negative, loved/hated, but what went well and what could have gone better. We can be gentle in our criticism if it comes from a good place – if we offer it because we want the other person to do better and not because we want to tear them down. We talk about being cruel to be kind. But sometimes, we’re cruel just to be cruel – and we don’t even realise it. Grateful for the gift of a soothing tongue, today, as I give feedback of any sort to any one, I will examine my motives and avoid gushing folly.

Closing Prayer

Dear Jesus, you were someone who spoke the truth, but your motive was always love. Sometimes your words made us uncomfortable, but all your words were words that brought life, truth and peace, and were for our good. May my words be words of truth and life, spoken with loving intention, neither full of meaningless flattery nor harshly critical and crushing.  Amen.