The Wrong Word!

     "But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called 'today,' that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin." (Heb.3:13)
     "And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works" (Heb.10:24).
    A good word!   Exhort or encourage one another... every day.  And think about, consider, how to stir up or spur one another on to love and good works.  Boy, there's nothing like an encouraging word is there?  Mark Twain once quipped, "I can last two months on a good compliment."  Give me a little chocolate with that compliment, and I might be able to last 3 months!
     I had a little reminder of this yesterday.  My 16 year old son texted me with some great news that he had done really well in Algebra this quarter.  In our house, this is huge news as we are all missing the math gene.  I'm not kidding.
     Like many boys his age, he's not particularly loquacious.  So for him to text me out of the blue to share this news, well, that was exciting in and of itself.  So my first response was to immediately text back "Praise the Lord!"  And then add some encouraging words and tell him how proud we were of him.
     But, being the abysmal texter that I am--in fact, my spelling on texts often makes them illegible--I began to text "Pr."  So far so good.  But then I put in an "i" instead of an "a" and my trusty blackberry thoughtfully auto-spelled for me the word "Pride."  I quickly tried to hit my delete button but instead hit  the sent button.  So here is the text my excited, somewhat quiet, teenaged son received from his mom:
     "Pride"
     Gee whiz.  I almost choked.  I rushed to repair the damage by immediately texting him that I was trying to say "Praise the Lord" (rather than apparently slamming him for pride).  O mercy, I responded back within a few moments, but I imagined him slack-jawed at my first text and showing all his friends what a total jerk his mom was.  Happily, this did not happen--mainly due to the fact he is somewhat used to my atrocious attempts at texting.
     But all this reminded me--Lord, help me to guard my tongue.  And guard my expressions and inflections as well when it comes to the people I love.  A wrong word, a sharp look, a sarcastic comment can do untold damage.
     On the other hand, an encouraging word, a thoughtful note, a big smile after someone has messed up to tell them "It's okay! For this we have Jesus," well, it can make all the difference.  And we'll never know the way God can use it in other's lives to strengthen them and to help them avoid some pitfall of sin or some hole of fear or despondency.
     So today, might we all encourage those God has placed in our paths.  Might we find reasons to thank rather than complain.  And grounds for rejoicing rather than nit-picking.   May the Lord guard us from falling into a default mode of fault-finding and instead make us people who relentlessly love and encourage others as God has done for us in Christ.   To God be the glory.