You're Never Clutter

One day a couple weeks ago, I had sent numerous e-mails to our Development team all in one day. In one of the e-mails, I had apologized to one of the guys for cluttering his inbox. In response I received a brief e-mail with the information I had requested but the e-mail started with this sentence. 

You're never clutter.

After reading those words, I froze and was unable to continue reading. I read them over and over again. They are just three words and they aren’t even big ones, but that day those words meant more than any other words in that e-mail. Maybe that day I needed to be reminded of my worth and value and that is why they seemed to strike me at the very core of being. But even more than that, I found myself amazed at the significant power these three simple words had.

I was reminded of this again earlier this week. I received a message from a friend that contained two words that hold a lot of weight in my world, trust and promise. You won’t hear me use these words often because to me they are very powerful words. Man, if someone says they trust me, that is huge. It stirs something deep inside me. I don’t use the word promise unless I’m sure I can follow through. Those two words just have great value to me.

The last few weeks I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how I communicate with others. Are the words I’m sharing encouraging others or are they bringing others down? Are my words pointing others in the right direction or leading them astray? 

My recent read through Proverbs has been very insightful, as I’ve worked to honestly answer these questions. Over and over again, the book talks about our words and speech, but the following verse has probably been the most influential this month.

The tongue can bring death or life; those who love to talk will reap the consequences. Proverbs 18:21

I love to talk! I mean, seriously, I think out loud. As I speak, are my words bringing death or life? Words have power. Choose them wisely.