Be gracious in your speech. The goal is to bring out the best in others in a conversation, not put them down, not cut them out! Colossians 4:6

Have you ever seen that Orbit commercial that they call “clean mouth”.  I always laugh at those silly commercials because they want you to think that by chewing their gum you will have a “clean mouth”.

I currently live in South Florida but was raised in New Jersey for most of my life. New York and New Jersey residents have a “tone” in their speech that may sound demanding or even rude to some  Southern folks.

When you have lived the majority of your life like this it comes as second nature to you not to take offense when someone speaks to you with this “tone”. However, we cannot assume that everyone comes from a nation or a part of the country that can relate to our “tone”.

I was convicted by the scripture verse above to “watch” the tone in my speech. We sometimes take our loved-ones or even friends for granted and may forget- some of what we may see as formalities-, such as “please, thank you, excuse me”. Okay, is it just me that nudges their kids or loved ones as you are passing by? And they yell out…”hello, you didn’t say excuse me” My defense is usually, “well you know I was trying to get by and didn’t move”. I know, I know, a very poor excuse and believe me I am being convicted as I type these words so don’t send me a comment on how rude I can be.

However, on a more serious note (if we are honest with ourselves) we could be rude in the way we speak to others without really intending to be or coughing it up to our cultural background, or what part of the country we come from, or sometimes even calling it honesty. Let’s remember that scripture reminds us to “be gracious” in our speech.

I challenge you to be intentional about how and what you say to others during the next 7 days. Tell your family to keep you accountable to this.

We have never arrived at being “overly gracious”, remember we can always improve and today I remind you to Just Breathe!

Reflection Corner:

1.) If you reviewed your last conversation with a loved one, would you change some of the things you said or how you said it?

2.) Are you willing to take the 7 day challenge in “watching your tone”?

3.) What are some words that you can identify that you want to “cut out” of your vocabulary this year?