Oct 16.97: Light For The Day - "Echo Words"

Color your words with kindness,
and they will come back to you in kind.

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"A soft answer turns away wrath,
but a harsh word stirs up anger. "
-- Proverbs 15:1 (RSV)

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"Echo Words"

A boy with a badly disfigured face was the target 
of many unkind remarks. One day he said to his
mother, "I hate people." Realizing he had become
despondent, she took him to a canyon and told him
to shout, "I hate you!" The echo came back,
"I hate you!" Then she told him to call out, 
"I love you!" The echo came back, "I love you!" 
His mother explained that usually we receive from
people what we first send out.

If God seems distant, perhaps we've distances
ourselves from Him, or from others. If He seems
uncaring, maybe we've grown hard toward others.
But the opposite is also true. He is merciful to
those who are sincere, depend on the Savior's
mercy, and reach out to others. Bible commentator
Richard Steele writes, "If you will echo to Him
when He calls, He will echo to you when you call."

What echoes are we creating?

The messages we send each day 
By what we do and say 
Will echo back to us in kind 
From those who pass our way. 

-- Dennis J. De Haan
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" And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything
in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God
the Father through him." 
-- Colossians 3:17 (RSV)


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