Controlling Your Smoke

Sometimes our words are like smoke and they spread much further than we may think.

When spring finally shows up each year, I love to get out and walk. I am not a treadmill or gym girl. I like to be out in nature, taking in all of the glorious sights that nature has to offer this time of year and I am never disappointed. Unfortunately, the other thing I can usually depend on this time of year is my neighbors burning leaves.

My neighborhood is full of hardwood trees which create like a billion leaves. There is one particular set of homeowners along my walk who insist on burning their leaves and it seems like they burn them all of the time, which probably seems like no big deal, right?

But, when I am walking or running and breathing hard and the air is filled with smoke, so are my lungs. It gets difficult to breathe and my fabulous walk in the beautiful sunshine, gets tarnished. I sometimes shoot daggers at them with my eyes as I walk by, not that they notice, and I allow myself to get angry, which is normally the complete opposite effect of exercise for me.

But, as I was fuming about it the other day, it occurred to me that those people probably have no idea how uncomfortable their smoke from their leaves, makes people. They are just burning their leaves on their property, thinking about clearing out their yard.

I then began to think about things that we all do that inadvertently effect those around us. Things like constantly complaining about our spouses, or our kids, or our jobs, or our churches.

Words can be like smoke and have far-reaching consequences. When we are regularly venting to a friend, there may be others around us who hear us. Maybe they are having their own relationship struggles and negative words spill over on them. Maybe they are questioning their own faith and our griping about the people at our church just reinforces their idea that churches are just social clubs anyway, not true places of growth and worship.

The Bible tells us “Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.” Ephesians 4:29

Constant negative words also eventually effect our own thought processes. It becomes a vicious cycle. We speak negatively and then we think negatively and then most of our thoughts become negative. God has a different way for us, a different plan.

“And now dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.” Philippians 4:8

Perhaps Lent is an ideal time to focus on all of the good things and then try to only speak good things, then maybe our “smoke” will be like a breath of fresh air in a world that desperately needs it.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂