Words carry great power. A harsh word or tone can do more damage in a few seconds than the good spirit you work towards for years. It doesn’t matter if you’ve had a rough day, it doesn’t matter if you and your husband had an argument on your way to church, it doesn’t matter if you’re not feeling well. Servants, just like in the old days, do not have the luxury of having bad days or bad moods when they’re serving. Ministry is not about you.

Whenever you serve someone else, they need you to have good words and good tones. Even if you’re having to teach them truth that can be painful, you have to say it with love. The children, girls, and women that you’re ministering to will only learn to trust your words when you have to say the hard things if you’re spending the rest of your time saying the sweet things they need to hear.

Do you have any idea how harsh and cruel the world can be? Most people come from broken homes these days full of parents who don’t know how to speak love to their children. This is why I suggest every woman in ministry look specifically for ways to encourage or love at least 5 people in your ministry every time you go there. You’ll need to be purposeful about this if you’re not used to it. And don’t go thinking that being shy is an excuse: I was excruciatingly shy when I began serving on a regular basis ten years ago. All “shy” means when you’re serving at a church is that you have to work a little hard to use your words powerfully.

The Bible tells us that “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.” A good word makes people shiny: a person’s whole countenance will change when someone speaks love to them. But a word unfitly spoken causes a person’s countenance to darken. I’ve seen and heard many pastor’s wives and Sunday school teachers who had bad attitudes or said something in an unloving manner who hurt the women and children they were supposed to be serving. I saw myself do this on more than one occasion: it is never, ever, ever okay. It is never, ever, ever okay for a servant of God’s church to not speak love.