Words!  They can be life or death!  Honestly, I have a problem with words!  I have a conversation with someone and promise to keep a confidence, but later, words slip out!   I have information that another person asks for, or I want to get someone’s attention, or sometimes I just want to get a laugh.  When I was in high school, I chose to memorize and meditate on Psalm 19:14 to help me with that problem.  “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer!”  Fortunately unwanted words don’t slip out as often as they used to.

I want to be the kind of friend that keeps confidences.  I want to be a person who is safe to be around because you don’t have to remember what you've said to me and what you can’t say because you don’t want me to repeat it to someone else.

Today a friend was talking to me.  She was basically thinking out loud and working through an idea.  She stopped herself, paused and said “You understand what I’m saying.  You know my heart and even if I’m spewing junk right now, you understand that I’m just processing out loud, right?”  How healing for my heart to hear that!  It confirmed what I want to be true​!​

“Feel Free” by Carolyn Arends

You can fill my crosswords in with ink 
Speak your mind before you think 
Wear your shoes inside my house 
Wear my clothes and wear me out 
You can lose your head or spill your guts 
I'm your friend I'm not your judge 

Feel free to laugh or cry 
Feel free to wonder why 
Feel free to dance or grieve 
You are safe when you're with me…Feel free 

You can change your plans or change your mind 
A million, billion, trillion times 
Raise the roof or pound the door 
Climb the walls or hit the floor 
You can run with scissors if you must 
But it'd be better if you just 

Feel free to laugh or cry 
Feel free to wonder why 
Feel free to dance or grieve 
You are safe when you're with me…Feel free 

To pray or scream or say or dream anything you want to 
To tell me every secret thing about the ghosts that haunt you 

And you can open up your closet wide 
There's no skeleton inside 
Worse than ones I call my own 
Rest assured you're not alone 
And together we can face that stuff 
Till at long last both of us

Feel free to laugh or cry 
Feel free to wonder why 
Feel free to dance or grieve 
You are safe when you're with me…Feel free