The Weight of Words

What is the first thing you say to someone when something bad happens?

Let me take a wild guess? Is it I’m Sorry and I’m praying for you?

Its not just you. Its all of us.

But, How many times do you say I’m Sorry or I’m Praying for you and actually mean it or act on it?

Think back to the last funeral/visitation you attended or think about the last funeral/visitation you were the family member at. If it was anything like my Nana and Papas you stand along either side of the casket for several hours (with the exception of my Papas where my loving boyfriend found me a stool to sit on because I was pregnant) as people file on at a time down the line shaking hands or hugging saying “I’m Sorry and I’m Praying for you”

By the time you get to the end you are exhausted and emotionally numb.

I’m Sorry to me anymore feels numb, that kinda numb, It has been told to me so may times that It just feels like it doesn’t have a meaning.

Now that isn’t saying that people don’t mean well, but how do you know in the moment if its truthful or just someone saying what they think they should say?

Truth is you don’t

The other day I was getting a pick up at a small business in town, as I was going to leave another women walked in. This women I knew had her whole world shattered just a week prior. So as she walked in I stopped her and said “I know you don’t know who I am but I am sorry and I have been praying for you and your family”

You will never guess what she said to me

Her response is what influenced this whole post

“I know exactly who you are, and I am so sorry”

You see, this was that same week so much crap was going on. Not only had she seen, but in the mist of her grief, she was sorry to me.

Those words she said were HEAVY, the carried so much weight that when I got to my car I completely broke down in tears. A women going through the unimaginable was sorry for what I was going through.

Matthew 15:18 says “But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them.”

What comes from your mouth comes truly from your heart. So if you are half doing with your words you are half doing with your heart and what you truly mean

Also, I looked in the three versions I use the most (NIV,ESV,NET) and they all use the word defile which lead me to believe that means that word is important

Defile means sully, mar, or spoil.

So it could read “and these things SPOIL them”

Which goes with what I was saying about half doing or not putting in effort.

The women the other day, did not half do her apology.

She knew exactly what she was saying, and said it with her whole heart

Speak with your whole heart. Be the person that goes “I know exactly who you are”