When Does it Get Easier?

Just when I think I’m making progress—BAM! I slip right back into what I thought I’d left far behind.

I think that I am helping, and yet my words dig a deeper hole.

I sense the person I’m speaking with is dealing with a spiritual battle. I know this, and yet, I somehow become a part of the warfare.

I’m not sure what makes me madder at myself—knowing that it is a spiritual battle and yet operating out of human thoughts and feelings, or that I was played like a pawn in the enemy’s schemes?

The person I was wanting to help now instead has insult added to injury.

Once again, I’m left with a broken mess that only God can heal.

I know that words hurt. I know that there is power and energy in our words. Scripture tells us that “death and life are in the power of the tongue.” I know this well, and yet, here I am in the aftermath of words that stung instead of healed. Words bringing pain instead of joy.

It is never my heart to hurt others. Truth, however, is sometimes quite painful.  It is the jerking of the band-aid off of the wound which exposes the vulnerable parts. Wounds don’t fully heal until the band-aid is removed. I just don’t like being the one to rip it off.

I’m still learning the art of exposing truth without causing more damage.

Wondering when it finally gets easier?