Words and Feathers

I shared a message this weekend called "Taming The Tongue." I ended my message with the story of a woman in a small town who shared things she 'knew' about another woman in the village. The things she shared were horribly damaging to her neighbor's reputation, but she told them anyway. She told many people even though the things she was telling could not be proven. Eventually, she found out the things she had been saying about her neighbor weren't true. She felt horrible.

She went to the Pastor and told him what she had done. She asked him what she could do to make it right. The old Pastor handed her a feather pillow and told her to go to the village square and tear open the pillow and empty all the feathers out of it and bring it back to him. She did what he instructed and asked him what to do next. He then instructed her to go back to the town square and pick up all the feathers she'd emptied out of the pillow. "There's no way I can do that." She pleaded. "The wind has carried them everywhere! How could I ever collect them all again?" The Pastor looked into her eyes and said, "You're right, and you can never take back the things you said about your neighbor."

Our words are powerful and we must be good stewards of what we say!