In life, we all have blind spots, and recently I’ve come to realize a major one in my life. What’s so frightening about a blind spot is that sometimes you don’t realize the damage you’re causing until after it has happened. James 3:1-12 talks about the idea of taming the tongue; how it can be used for building up and/or tearing down each other. Friends, I have to confess that after having to seeing the hurt in the eyes of and hearing the hurt in the voice of persons who matter so much to me that I’ve used my tongue to tear others down. The scary part is I wasn’t even aware! In my mind, I thought I was helping but my help was only causing deep hurt.
As someone who’s called to encourage and empower people the last thing I’d ever want to do is hurt others with my words, but I’ve done just that, I suspect, more than I know. Truth be told, I’m now divorced, in part, to hurting others with my words. It crushes my soul to know that I’ve hurt people with my words in ignorance. What makes it worse is that I did this in such a self-righteous “Godly” manner. I had no idea that I was acting in such a prideful and arrogant way; the direct opposite of how Christ compels is to walk out our faith.
Due to the fact that so many of my roles have been public is why I’m addressing this publicly because I don’t know who I’ve affected over the years. Therefore, if I’ve hurt you with my words in any way I want you to know that I’m so sorry. If I spoke to you in a way the deflated your confidence or made you feel less than a person, I sincerely apologize. To those who trusted me enough to let me in the most sensitive areas of your life, who opened up your heart to me, I own that I may have wounded you with my words.
The good news is now I’m aware. I have people who love & care about me who are walking with me in this season as I work through the root issues of my behavior. I believe once you know better, you should do better. I have every intent to turn away from treating anyone carelessly, not by my power but by His grace.
I love you all too much not to put myself out here to share this. Life’s too short not to take opportunities to make matters right with others. Please reach out to me personally if I can make things better between us. At the end of the day we all want to know we’re loved & accepted, myself included. I want to live out the rest of my days doing just that.
Thanks for listening.
Peace & Love.
metric 