To Kill or Kindle

        I had the opportunity this weekend to go through some of my Fathers things that have been sitting in boxes for 15 years.  I found so many cool things that blessed my socks off and brought tears to my eyes. My brother and I spent some time going through his things and scanning what we could.  During this time I found out somethings about my Dad that I didn't know or wasn't aware of.  I found out that he had been the organizer of the beauty pageants and was very involved in pageants and he was President of the organization that was in charge of putting them on for the county.  The winners would then head off to the state competition etc...   I was a bit shocked and amused by that.  I also learned of something that absolutely tore my heart out, and brought me to tears.  I am not sure why we were never told or maybe family just assumed we knew, but we didn't, yet was very public information.  In the early 70's my Dad, who was target shooting with another person, accidentally shot and killed a man while in a target shooting area, but he had no idea.  Apparently one of his bullets missed the target and went far enough to hit another man who was hunting quite a distance away.  The man was not even found until the next day and nobody, for quite some time knew what had happened until the investigation was complete, and was later ruled an accident.  My brother and I would have been babies really, so of course we had no idea. To find this out, revealed so very much about my Dad, that now makes so much sense to both my brother and I. 
 My heart just broke for him and I have wept, but yet it was almost like the missing piece of trying to understand some choices my Dad made in his life, as he clearly spent a lot of his life "running" from pain, from hurt, from fear, and often used "bandaides" to deal with it all .  God bless him, as an adult I see it so much more clearly.  My Dad had a heart of gold and would have given you the shirt off his back, and I know that this is part of what destroyed him inside, and yet it was an accident.  I could not even begin to imagine the devastation and having to deal with such a thing, for the REST of your life, knowing that you killed a man accidentally and that there is nothing you can do to fix it. 
What he did was accidental, unintentional, and I know if he could have taken it back, he would have without question.
  Some of you may be upset that I have even brought up such a tragic thing, let alone about my Dad, may he rest in peace.  His ordeal was a very public one and no doubt, painful.  I know that If I can use his story and situation to help someone else, in whatever way, then he would be thrilled at that.  Many of you may be thinking "What? I've never shot and killed anyone!  I've never even shot a gun!".  While this may be true, we kill people all the time.  We kill them with our words, or our actions, our negativity.  We may not kill them completely but we may kill parts of them....maybe even unintentionally.  We kill their hopes, their dreams, maybe even their passions.  We kill them with lies every time we fail to be truthful to others in any situation.  We kill atmospheres by bringing in bitterness, doubt or fear.  We can kill others potentials when we don't live up to our own.  I don't even want to think about how many times I have possibly been responsible for this in my life because maybe, I was a death voice to someone. 
 "Life voices" will encourage you into your next season, "death voices", on the other hand, will discourage you, hold you back, cause doubt and confusion, and try to keep you from your next season.  How many times have you spoken into someones life and what you said did not go along with Gods Word? Painful but true, I think even with the best intentions we may all be guilty at some point or another of being killers because of what came out of our mouths, or due to our actions.  

  Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen (Ephesians 4:29).

The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life (Proverbs 10:11)

So many people this time of year are talking about or thinking about New Years resolutions.  I am not about promoting resolutions really because if change needs to be made, why wait until the New Year, but it just so happens to be that New Years is a couple days away.  So, if you are thinking about a resolution, this would be a good one...."Stopping to think...... are you a life or death voice to someone in any situation?"
With the Holy Spirits leading, find ways to encourage people positively, truthfully, and genuinely.  You can be in a situation and negative circumstance, and still look for, and speak about the positive.  Become the light in the darkness, as we are called to do as Christians.  Its a daily, minute by minute decision you will have to make, but you have the opportunity to kill someones spirit, or to kindle it.  I believe we can all tell the truth in love, but its a choice.  My Dad could not change what happened to him, but we have a choice every day on how we are sowing into the lives of others, or how we are affecting them. We may not be able to change what has happened in the past, but we can choose our words and actions of the future.  Choose to live intentionally.  Kindle the flame of others, don't be a killer of it.