Sticks and Stones

We all know that the spoken word is powerful. We have a lifetime of hurt if an important person in our childhood called us something like "You stupid.....". We tend to think that if someone corrects us or disagrees with us they are calling us "stupid". Therefore we get very angry and the conversation gets ugly very fast. We were in many of these "discussions" before we learned that most of our triggers were really unhealed "bitter roots." Hebrews 12:15. See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God that no root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by it many be defiled. Billy and I would in the middle of any conversation give the other permission to question if this was a trigger to a bitter root. It is not easy to answer that question when you know you are RIGHT about something. Unloving conversation is never OK. Strong disagreement could always be managed without rude comments or extreme emotions. The next step would be to apologize, maybe agree to disagree for a time and pray about what might have caused this unloving reaction. After learning this, we never went to bed without a necessary apology. Love is always an action word. Can you apologize? If not, what is your bitter root?