"Say what you need to say." A lot easier said than done (no pun intended). Everyone says you should speak your mind, and especially if you feel something needs to be said, you should say it. But what about when everything you say backfires? What about when you say things in the kindest way you possibly can; editing, planning, doubly-checking, praying about it, and even having someone else read it over to check for content, but it still backfires, and you end up in even more trouble after you say it?
What do you do then? Can you stop saying what you need to say? Can you bite your tongue and decide that saying what you feel you should say isn't important? And maybe sometimes it isn't. Maybe sometimes peace is more important than getting something off your chest. Though not everything that you need to say is just getting something off of your chest. Perhaps it is a case where you feel that by not saying something, you are doing wrong. And that's rough, because you know that in doing what you need to do, you're going to risk being hurt by the backlash.
James 4:17 says: Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
If you feel that you are supposed to say something, whether it is calling someone out about something in their life, or trying to restore a relationship that needs some tough love, or whatever else you might need to say, if you don't do it, you are sinning. Every time that we obey God, we risk being hurt. But every time that we ignore what we are meant to do, we are hurting ourselves even worse.
So say what you need to say. I would rather be called out by someone who is listening to God and is calling me out because they care about me, than to find out in a few years that I was totally messing up and no one said anything. Hopefully you'll mostly come across people who feel the same way. But if you're speaking out of love, ultimately, you are doing the right thing.
What do you do then? Can you stop saying what you need to say? Can you bite your tongue and decide that saying what you feel you should say isn't important? And maybe sometimes it isn't. Maybe sometimes peace is more important than getting something off your chest. Though not everything that you need to say is just getting something off of your chest. Perhaps it is a case where you feel that by not saying something, you are doing wrong. And that's rough, because you know that in doing what you need to do, you're going to risk being hurt by the backlash.
James 4:17 says: Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
If you feel that you are supposed to say something, whether it is calling someone out about something in their life, or trying to restore a relationship that needs some tough love, or whatever else you might need to say, if you don't do it, you are sinning. Every time that we obey God, we risk being hurt. But every time that we ignore what we are meant to do, we are hurting ourselves even worse.
So say what you need to say. I would rather be called out by someone who is listening to God and is calling me out because they care about me, than to find out in a few years that I was totally messing up and no one said anything. Hopefully you'll mostly come across people who feel the same way. But if you're speaking out of love, ultimately, you are doing the right thing.
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