Being a passionate sort of person, there are more than just a few times in my life that I’ve longed to have a “delete” key for some one-liners I’ve uttered. Furthermore, since I am not only passionate but somewhat reckless as well, there are times that I’ve longed for an entire box of old-fashioned chalkboard erasers for lengthy paragraphs that were better left unsaid. This used to be my lot in life, but thanks be to God, with age I am learning to temper myself.

This is not to say that I’m always successful. My husband can attest to this fact as far back reaching as…today.

The problem with my character (which overflows out of my mouth) is not that what I speak isn’t the truth, but that my heart is evil. And so, the message is skewed by the messenger. That is, there is a way to say it, and there is a way not to say it. I usually choose the latter.

This week I was sitting at the piano practicing a rather difficult piece. In fact, I will probably never play the piece competently. So, after months of enduring the painful noise coming from the keys, my preschooler turns to me and says, “Mommy, that’s not good.” She was accurate, and being the type of person I am, I enjoyed the assessment. I happen to prefer straight-shooters.

However, since I’ve moved beyond preschool age, speaking the obvious isn’t so cute anymore. I want people to “give it to me like it is”, and in turn, I assume that others might enjoy this approach as well. However, it is not enough that the message be true if it is not tempered with love. Even with the best of intentions, one must always take extraordinary care that the desire to encourage others to think biblically is not motivated selfishly. Anything whose means is not charity and end is not God’s glory is sounding brass and clanging cymbal.

It is a delicate balance, one requiring God-given wisdom, to make sure that it is the preaching of the cross that offends and not the preacher. The way of the cross is hard, narrow, and the Bible says that few find it. Not many choose to put off the old self and exchange fleeting pleasures for holiness. Let us always be careful that if we find others straying from the narrow way, that it is because they are rejecting the path, and not because they don’t want to walk next to us.