How much you want to bet there were people who knew George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin who asked them to stop what they were doing, counseling them it was foolish and that they would end up bankrupt and destroy what had already been built? Who has the loudest voice in your life? Is it a naysayer? The most damage ever done to the human spirit to prevail is done by those surrounding each person, chipping away at their intention to do something worthy or righteous. Are you counseling those around you to be fearful or to pull back from completing that which God has programmed into their soul?

Day after day I hear people mourn the lack of love one’s support in the great things they have planned for their families or the community around them. We perhaps have forgotten the pivotal importance and the affect we have upon all those in our sphere of personal influence. It appears to be associated with the mindset of personally focused importance. That each of us having made ourselves the most important subject in the room, our own story the only one worth hearing have lost understanding of the impact each has upon those who depend our encouragement, agreement or support. How many of us have stopped something truly life changing from transpiring in our simple misunderstanding of our own impact upon those who love us and expect the same?

I would rather be silent then see the effect of my negligence, poor encouragement or rather adverse discouragement of those who have ideas, grand ideas about how they wish to change the world around them. That is not love. Nor is it love to make myself the center of the universe and in so doing diminish the importance of each life that God has graced me to be involved. It is time for me to take the light off myself and place it upon those around me for whom I have some measure of culpability in their prosperity or efficacy for God’s Kingdom. They are not my charge but it is my responsibility to love them the way that I would want to be loved and that is exactly to what I am referring. I would wish that those around me took a conscious participative role in my maturation, even to the point of refraining from the negative words they would deliver simply to see me corrected. I love you folks and I will do nothing to defer, diminish or restrain you in accomplishing the impossible tasks that God has directed for your completion.

Times have changed. Most people have become so self concerned that they no longer even consider the words that they are saying may have a detrimental effect upon the youthful minds surrounding our monologue. Gone are the restraints or governors on our speech such that in the public square children can readily expect to hear the most vulgar dialogue imaginable. It is normal or regular for putrid speech to reach the ears of the innocent, marring, shaping, changing them for a lifetime ahead and yet few of us consider the impact of a moment having that lasting impression. I own my words. Words are the most powerful weapon I have. If I go about with no caution or respect of that potency then when wounds, damage or lasting malformation occurs because of my speech then I should accept the accountability for that flippant regard.

We as Americans have been given liberty to do many things that are considered beyond human reach around the world. Yet, we take it with loose regard as if entitled to these freedoms to such measure that we may escape accountability. With Power comes the responsible use of that authority that it not be wielded in a manner that causes collateral damage. It is time once again to remember that we are not alone in the universe, that young ears and hearts hear everything that we say and are impacted in the wake of our flippancy. I know that I am not in charge of America, but I am in charge of me and the things that I say. I will not have a child damaged by my words just because I had the freedom and the power to say them. My freedom does not outweigh the rights of the innocent. Their future is more important that my will to express my thoughts and though what I need say must be said it must be said at appropriate timing, in jargon and meter that it will not have negative repercussions upon the innocent for whom I am personally responsible to God Almighty.

Never underestimate the impact each of you have on each other’s life. Leave little damage in the wake of your temporary travels through this life. Love them as you would want to be loved. In Jesus’ Name.