“The words of the reckless pierce like swords, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.” (Proverbs 12:18)

Recently, as I was browsing through the newspaper at a local coffee shop, I happened to read my horoscope. It said: “You are advised to watch what you say. If you speak without thinking you can make yourself more enemies.”

Somehow, I had already done that. Too bad I read this advice for Libras too late. How important are our words! They can be like arrows being shot towards someone when we are in an argumentative mood. They can hurt someone’s soul, triggering anger and resentment back toward you, bringing up so much misunderstanding and confrontation that is not needed in our daily life.

We all have an opinion. The trick is to know how to express it in the right way, to explain our motivation, our concerns, the cause or person we are protecting or defending.

My husband was so good at it. I really miss that. He was my theologian. He could express anything with the right tone of voice, the perfect heart, a bit of humor. He never took himself too seriously. How he came up with the right words at the right time, never saying too much or too little.

Some days we could be out of sync and hell broke loose. One time I had an argument with a superior. Dietrich explained to me why it was important to create harmony and peace before we left that place. In other words, he asked me if I could apologize. At first, I could not. Eventually I did. This act brought me good fortune. When we arrived at our new destination I was right away promoted to a new position.

The internal work going on in our heart propels our fortune to appear at a new level. The same is also true for the person receiving our comments and our opinion, not to fire back, but rather to say “Ok. God bless!”