Two girls got on a bus and they started talking to each other.
“Did you hear that Sarah got engaged yesterday?”
“No, I never knew that! That’s amazing!!”
“But she is so sloppy and unorganized! How is she going to run a household?”
“I know, said the other girl, she’s never on time. And remember the one time she cooked for us? Her food was terrible! Her new husband is going to starve!!”
“I heard she spends money faster than she receives it. How will she get through the month?”
So it went, on and on and on. Behind the two girls was another lady who suddenly spoke up.
“I am sorry to interrupt you girls but I wanted to introduce myself. My son just got engaged to Sarah. Now that I know this information, I will tell my son everything that you said about Sarah and he must break off the engagement immediately. I will also tell all my friends how grateful I am to you girls for letting me know what Sarah is really like”.
The girls were shocked. They started to stutter and struggled to find the right words.
“No, No” they pleaded. Please do not let your son break the engagement.”
“Sarah is wonderful! She will make a great mother! She really will!”
“She is so warm, friendly and caring”.
“We were just talking. We never meant her any harm”. “Please don’t break the engagement”.
However, the woman was adamant.
“Thank you, but based on what you said, I will make every effort to break it up as soon as possible. The girl you described sounds like a terrible person. I will inform my son immediately.”
The girls were horrified and crushed. After a short silence, the lady turned around to the girls and said “I am not the boy’s mother, but imagine if I was?”
“Do you know the damage you could have caused to this couple? You almost destroyed a potential family just because you had nothing else to talk about?”
“Words either build or destroy, use them wisely” the woman said sternly and with that she got off the bus.
Moral: This story should be a wake up call for all of us. It’s so easy to talk all the time without any awareness of the power of our words.