Guarding Your Words, Guarding Your Heart
Not everyone will hear your words the way you intend them. And not everyone is meant to carry the weight of your heart.
Life has a way of teaching us this. You share something deeply personal, maybe a dream, a struggle, or a hope for the future, and instead of being received with care, your words get filtered through someone else’s insecurities, fears, or misunderstandings. Suddenly, what you meant for encouragement sounds like arrogance. What you offered in trust is handled with suspicion.
One of the greatest lessons you can learn in life is discovering who you can trust with your words and who you cannot.
It rarely happens overnight. Usually, it’s trial and error. You open up, sometimes to the wrong people, and you learn from the sting of betrayal or the ache of being misunderstood. Over time, you begin to recognize the safe places; the people who handle your words with respect, who guard your confidence, and who love you enough to hear your heart without judgment.
Joseph, the son of Jacob, learned this lesson early in his life. As a teenager, he had dreams, God-given dreams, that painted a picture of his future. Excited, maybe even a little naïve, he shared those dreams with his brothers. But instead of celebration, he met jealousy. Instead of encouragement, he found resentment. What Joseph spoke in innocence, his brothers heard through the lens of their own insecurity and rivalry.
Their response was devastating. Their misunderstanding and bitterness drove them to betrayal, and Joseph’s life was forever altered. Yet even in that painful moment, God’s sovereign hand was at work. What his brothers meant for harm, God would eventually turn for good, not just for Joseph, but for an entire nation.
Here’s the truth: your words are seeds. Some people will water them, nurture them, and believe in them. Others will trample them, crush them, or twist them into something they were never meant to be. The wisdom is not in silencing yourself forever, but in learning where and with whom to plant those seeds.
And even when your words are mishandled, you can rest in the assurance that God is bigger than misunderstanding. He can take what others twist and use it as part of His greater story in your life.
So this week, I encourage you to reflect:
Who are the people in your life that you can trust with your words?
How can you also be the kind of person who carries the words of others with grace, without judgment, without twisting them through your own insecurities?
Guard your words. Guard your heart. And trust that even in the moments of miscommunication, God’s hand is still steady on your story.