First Baptist Church of Herndon

Just Saying...

Linda Soller | Jun 25, 2018

“If you can’t say anything nice, then don’t say anything at all.” I heard that as a child, and oddly enough it was much easier to follow that rule when I was a child than it is as an adult. I feel like we grow more resolute in our opinions as we age. Not always a good thing. We also seem to feel our age gives us freedoms to ignore the feelings of others. That is simply not true.

“Say what you mean and mean what you say.” Now that is an expression geared more to adults. Kids can be so cute when they blurt out something, which doesn’t make sense or express what you know they are trying to communicate. Hey, they are learning, and part of that is making mistakes. However, we grown- ups should have a vocabulary that allows us to communicate what we really mean to say. So why do we spend so much time saying, “what I meant was…”?

Peter stood beside the street with a sign, “homeless”. As I reached out to give him a little something to help he said, “my name is Peter, I will be blessed to receive anything you give me, and I will pray for you. What is your name?” I replied, “Thank you for your prayers, my name is Linda, Peter, and I will pray for you.” With that he finally made eye contact, I restated, “Peter, I will pray for you too.” He said, “thank you for your prayers and your gift.” He looked back at the ground and returned to the median where he stood in partial shade on a hot spring day. Nothing earth shattering had changed in his life, but everyone likes to hear their name, and who doesn’t need prayers? 

Driving to work I prayed for Peter, and that night and the days that followed, I prayed for Peter. What if we changed the familiar expressions to “always try to say something nice”, and “when you mean something worth saying, say it”? Resist the name calling, abandon being judgmental, don’t make promises you can’t keep. Don’t blame others or situations for the words coming out of your mouth, just saying.

Have a great week!  :o) Linda