They say many a seriousness is said in jest. Perhaps so.
There’s an old hymn we sing in worship sometimes called Angry Words. It is beautiful when sung in the different voice parts.
People very often say things they don’t mean, don’t realize how it sounds or think about how a person may receive those words (myself included). So what do you do when someone says something to you that just cuts your heart out?
You forgive, move on, and choose to believe they didn’t mean it the way it sounded or the way you took it.
Angry words! oh, let them never
From the tongue unbridled slip:
May the heart’s best impulse ever
Check them ere they soil the lip.
Love is much too pure and holy,
Friendship is too sacred far,
For a moment’s reckless folly
Thus to desolate and mar.
Angry words are lightly spoken,
Bitt’rest tho’ts are rashly stirred,
Brightest links of life are broken,
By a single angry word.
“Love one another,” thus saith the Saviour;
Let us obey the Father’s blest command;
“Love one another,” thus saith the Saviour;
Let us obey His blest command.
Author: Horatius R. Palmer