“Your kindness will reward you, but your cruelty will destroy you.” Proverbs 11:17

I just experienced something that made such an impression on me that I don’t think I will ever forget. In fact, it made so much of a negative impression on me that I don’t think I will ever be the same again. This memory is forever etched in my mind.

I was at a local restaurant sitting at a table just reading and enjoying some much needed quiet time away from my normal day-to-day activities. I was loving every moment of my “me time”…that is until this happened.

My peace and quiet was soon interrupted by some commotion from a young family. This family consisted of a husband, a wife, and two young elementary school-aged girls. The wife politely asked the husband a question regarding his job. Then that’s when it all happened. That’s all it took. One simple question about his job to set off the young husband. He proceeded to holler at his wife, using every degrading and derogatory name he could call her, along with every profanity that he could spew out of his mouth. The lady just sat there humiliated and embarrassed. I was heartbroken, humiliated, and embarrassed for her.

Then my heart sank even lower. There were two young girls listening to their dad speak to a woman in a way that was beyond disrespectful and degrading to any female. I can only imagine what damage has already been done to these two precious young ladies. He is teaching them that it’s okay to treat a woman just however he wants. He is teaching them that a woman is worthless and deserves to be treated like garbage.

There was no reason for him to respond that way. None at all! Everyone deserves to be treated with respect and dignity, and as a female, especially NO man deserves to treat his wife in this manner. There are NO excuses.

Somewhere along the way, this man’s cruelty is going to destroy him. He is planting seeds with every cruel and degrading word that he is speaking. When you plant negative seeds, then you are going to reap a negative crop. It may not be tomorrow, but it will be sometime in the future. He is destroying his family with his words, but he’s also destroying his lineage with his words.

So I learned some great lessons in this incident. The first is to always be consciously aware of how I speak to other people. I long and desire to speak words of life and encouragement to every person He puts in my path. I want a good crop. My second lesson is to be aware of how people are speaking to me. I will not subject myself anymore to negativity, negative words, or negative people. God has brought me too far to go back to the way my life used to be. I am worth much more than that.

Plant good words and produce a good crop. Plant negative words and produce a negative crop.

Natalie ❤️