A broken plate

I’ve been thinking about this picture for days.  Thinking about the damage that words can do. 

This plate can be glued back together.  True.  It can even be used again.  But, will it ever again be all of what it was created to be? No.  It will forever be damaged.  Keep throwing it down, and gluing it back together.  Eventually, it will be useless. Pieces will be missing.  The scars will be too many.

Isn’t that what happens with our emotions?  We can take the “hits”.  We can be glued back together.  BUT the damage will remain.  We won’t be everything we were created to be.  We will be damaged.  We will be numb.  Maybe we can look fine on the outside – the cracks barely visible, but on the inside we will be shattered.  Maybe even eventually, emotionally, we will be useless – feeling nothing.  But, you say, God heals, He binds us up, He loves . . . YES (PRAISE GOD), but look at the plate again.  It can be healed, bound up, loved even, but the scars remain. 

Have you ever felt like this plate?  Have you ever caused someone else to look like this plate?

I dare say we have all been the plate, and all been the destroyer of the plate.

Proverbs 16:23 “The heart of the wise makes his speech judicious…”  God, take control of my tongue.  Use it for goodness and kindness.  Help me build people up.  And God, when I have been broken by the words of others, help me forgive.  Bind me up, God.  Heal my broken spirit.  Help me to continue to be useful in your service.