Cursing

Here's something good:  Do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you.  Your heart knows that many times you yourself have cursed others.  (Ecclesiastes 7:21)  Gulp.  


Am I the only one that is convicted by this verse?  Does this not strike to our very hearts:  we hate, hate, hate to be misunderstood and maligned, and yet we so often choose, choose!, to misunderstand and malign.  Woe is me, for I am a woman of unclean lips!  (See Isaiah 6)


Here is what I tell myself:  Settle down.  Simmer down.  Think better of others than they seem to deserve.  Paul says, Consider others better than yourselves in Philippians 2.  
  
Here's what else I tell myself:  Look and see what wretchedness God has forgiven in you because of Christ.  Imagine the things He has overlooked out of love.  As the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive (Colossians 3:13).


Let me encourage you to lean on the Lord with your mouth, speak not rashly nor hastily nor thoughtlessly nor self-centeredly.  For God is in heaven and you are on earth.  Therefore let your words be few.  (See Ecclesiastes 5:2)  


And listen with forgiving and kind ears to those who curse you.