Your Words Matter

Be mindful when it comes to your words,

a string of some that don't mean much to you,

may stick with someone else for a lifetime.

 

It can be hard to mean what you say and say what you mean.  It can be hard for some people to be nice.  I had to deal with a customer the other day who is never nice.  He uses foul language, call us all names, and makes unkind and untrue accusations.  The only thing good about it is that he doesn't usually come out of his house.  Most of the time, his son actually comes to get the mail for him.  I remember when I first came to my small office, the son was having a bad day and wasn't very nice.  The other clerks told me that I would way rather deal with the son than the father.  It was a few years until I had to deal with the father, and consistently I get to deal with him about once every two years now. 

It is funny to me how people behave so badly and use such bad language that you never forget who they are.  The thing is, it doesn't change the service he gets a single bit, (well, it might make it worse because my employees come get me when they see him.  They don't want to deal with him.  He always has very bad things to say.) How sad is that? 

I have started to really pay attention to the way I talk to others.  I am not always as good as I would like to be, or as good as I should be, but I am doing better this year than I did last year.  One single step at a time. 

I don't want people to remember me because of the bad words I say, or because of bad behavior.  I want them to remember me because I was kind and gently and caring.  We don't get to decide what others think of us, but we do get to decide how we act around them.  We do get to choose our words and our deeds. 

I don't want someone else's memories of me to only include the bad without recognizing the good.  I don't want to be that one person in town that everyone dreads to meet.  So for today, and hopefully every other day, I will smile, I will be kind, and I will hope that the words I say inspire someone for good. 

Remember, we all get to make a choice.  What is yours going to be?

 

“My dear sisters, we believe in you. We believe in and are counting on your goodness and your strength, your propensity for virtue and valor, your kindness and courage, your strength and resilience. We believe in your mission as women of God.” 

Elder M. Russell Ballard