As a full time writer, words fill my world. No matter what a person's occupation, knowing how to communicate effectively makes all the difference. In our personal lives, for example, stringing letters together to form words makes it possible for us to express our thoughts, articulate our concerns and on occasion, provide us with ammunition for a fight.
Broadening our perspective to include the business world, words are necessary tools in communicating the worth of our ideas as well as our products and services. As marketing tools, they become the vehicles on which we move forward.
In our interactions with others, words provide the support and encouragement that someone may be longing for or, conversely, they can be instruments of pain.
Listen to what some far more prestigious writers than I have said: "One of the hardest things in life is having words in your heart that you can't utter" (James Earl Jones). Ralph Waldo Emerson penned these words of wisdom: "Words are alive. Cut them and they bleed."
Back to the matter of a good fight, Laurence J. Peter recorded this conscience-pricker: "Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you'll ever regret." Ouch but oh, so true. On the other hand, someone else wrote this: Keep your words sweet, you may have to eat them."
As much as I love to write and as hard as I try to convey something of value to my readers, my words fall short of what Jesus had to say.
"These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on." Matthew 7:24 (The Message)
P.S. as the wife of a carpenter I know the value of a solid foundation...words or wood, build well.
