Do Your Words Hurt or Heal?
By Andrea Herzer The soothing (healing) tongue is a tree of life, but a perverse (distorted, vicious, deceitful) tongue crushes the spirit. - Proverbs 15:4 Have you ever experienced a betrayal by someone who you trusted? Years ago, I suffered the pain of an undeserved betrayal. Trust, then peace, and finally unity were all destroyed as the matter was repeated; after all, "gossip separates the best of friends" (Proverbs 16:28). Soon, what might have been a private matter became convoluted by those who were quick to judge without knowing the facts. I wish I could say that I took the hurt to God in prayer, allowed him to defend me, then forgave and happily moved on with my life. That is what I wanted to do. It is what I tried to do, at times. But what I mostly did was cry, seethe, and talk endlessly about how I had been hurt. In the midst of that season, the bitterness of unforgiveness slithered out of my heart and into my speech. After all, "whatever is in your heart determines what you say" (Matthew 12:34). During my quiet times, the Lord began to speak to me about my habit of complaining about those who had hurt me. Here is what I wrote in my journal during that difficult season: | 
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