R.E.A.L. Women Devotional - No More Words

Years ago I read an article by Dorothy Nevill. She said and I quote "The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing in the right place, but to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment." This particular article said that women "talk" three times as much as men. Women use at least 20,000 words a day and men only use about 7,000 words. Wow! But having a daughter, I'm not surprised. She talks at least three times as much as my son.

What is it about women and words? As you can see I have many words, that’s why these devotionals are so long. We have this idea that we have the liberty to say whatever we want, and in the Christian vocabulary, we feel we can say it "in love". I recently heard a Christian woman, who in the same breath claimed to be filled with the Holy Spirit, speak horrible words to someone close to me. We don't realize sometimes the words we choose can leave deep wounds and although they heal over time, often leave scars. Why is it we always remember the negative things that are said to us? I wonder how many of those 20,000 words a day are negative and how many are positive. We might be able to cut our word count in half! Ecclesiastes 5:2 & 3 says "Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few. 3 As a dream comes when there are many cares, so the speech of a fool when there are many words."

We really need to guard our mouths. We need to speak more "loving words" to one another than words "in love". We need to allow the Holy Spirit to be the filter in which we run our words through before we say them. I heard Joyce Meyer say once that it was interesting that the fruit of the spirit "love" and "self control" book end all the fruit in the middle. Sometimes love and self-control go hand in hand. I would challenge us to begin to look at what words we choose to use. Let us allow the Holy Spirit to bring it to our attention. He will do it in a gentle and loving way.

I admit I struggle in this area. Especially when life seems really heavy. It's like the pressure squeezes things out of me that would not be normally be said. To some degree that is good as it is releasing the toxins within my heart. But it all depends on "who" am I expressing it to. When we spew these toxins on others, it poisons them too, but when we recognize them and hand them over to the Lord, He can purify them. Take some time regularly to bring your heart to the Lord for purification. Jesus said in Matthew 12:34, "...out of the 'overflow' of the heart the mouth speaks."