I Meant What I Said And I Said What I Meant....Or Did I?

I think we take our words for granted. I'll be directing this as much to myself as I would for anyone else. The older I get and the more I really think about it the less fond of sarcasm I become. It feels so strange for me to say something like that, seeing as how a good many of the comments that I make are devoted to sarcasm. The Bible says that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.....and to be honest I sure don't want what sometimes comes out of my mouth, and often through my head, to be what is found in abundance in my heart. I have written off my words for the longest time souly because I was "just joking", but there is something about the way that my speech and that verse line up that I'm not ok with. The Bible talks frequently about speaking words of life and building each other up.....and I'd have to say that that is the exact opposite of what sarcasm accomplishes. Something that I have noticed is that if it's something widely accepted by the world then chances are better than not that it's not the Christian thing to do, and sarcasm is something that is widely accepted by the world as a great source of entertainment in general.

I have found that sarcasm has gotten me in trouble because someone took something the wrong the way, and sure some people take teasing better than others, but why would you want to say something that would be questionable anyway? It's a good deal more difficult to hurt someones feelings when you're speaking only words of life and love. How can saying the exact same thing using only a different tone of voice make mean the difference between a joke or a mean comment? The more I think about it the less of a difference I see and the lower my opinion of sarcasm becomes. So I challenge you as well as myself to mean what you say and say what you mean.