Ephesians 4:29-32

"Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.
And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:
And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you."
Ephesians 4:29-32


So this one doesn't require much commentary... be nice. :)  Of course, if you think you're going to get off that easy, you're crazy... this is Suzanne the professional babbler we are talking about. :)  I like the fact that the scripture mentions "tenderhearted" ... so many times this is seen as a weak trait... especially in men.  but it is a Godly trait, and one that no amount of "tough guy" movies should drum out of us.  We desensitize ourselves to so many things in this life... and it helps us cope in some ways.  If we were sensitive to the threat of nuclear war every minute of the day we would be stressed all the time... but we can't desensitize ourselves to everything... especially people.  especially the Spirit.  God isn't going to get through to us when we are playing the tough guy role... pretending that we can make it absolutely alone with no help from him or anyone else.  we *can* be heroic and make a powerful difference in this world, but it requires help from the people around us, and from God.
Sometimes when we can't deal with emotion we use anger to cover it up... the emotional cover-up of anger is okay when we are trying to be tough, but the real emotion underneath isn't.  Let's try to put away the anger, and remember that it is okay to be tenderhearted.  God is tenderhearted, and he is the most powerful of all.