I could hear the angry song long before I could locate its composer.  As soon as I heard the familiar sound I do like I have always done, I froze; refusing to move until I could find the source of the fearful rattle.  Lucky for this serpent he was well protected behind the thick glass of his cage because he might have been injured if my nerve broke and I had to flee for my life.  But rest assured, no snakes were harmed while in my presence on this day.

        I don’t really like snakes.  All my life I have had a healthy respect (and sometimes a paralyzing fear) for these cold blooded animals.  While I know that these reptiles play an important role in our environment, we have scared each other many times on my trips through the woods and rivers of Alabama.  Today, we just stand here, eye to eye and look at each other.  I watch as he coils himself like a rubber band stretched tight, as he prepares to release the tremendous energy pinned up in his slender body.  I gaze at this amazing reptile as he twists his body in an attempt to dig in for maximum traction in order to deliver his most powerful punch.

        As I looked into his cold eyes I could see a fire blazing.  He was trying to determine if I was a threat.  Do I open my mouth, bare my fangs and deliver my poison or do I just try to scare him?  As my blood pressure began to rise, I realized that I ask the same questions every day.  When I look into the eyes of difficult people I make a decision; do I lash out at them and try to hurt them, do I attempt to intimidate them, ignore them or be kind to them.  Too often my posture is just like that of my fanged friend, I am all coiled up and ready to strike at anybody who gets in my way.

        Let us realize that when we bare our fangs and strike out in anger against those in our lives, we are only poisoning our own souls.  When we seek revenge, retaliation or simply speak hasty words in anger we are really striking a double blow, wounding not only the object of our wrath, but much more, ourselves by poisoning the very fountain from which we must drink.  Our words are loaded pistols caring tremendous power of destruction and healing and we get to choose the caliber.  Will our words today hurt or heal?  Will people freeze and flee when they hear us or find health and healing when they look into our eyes?  The choice is yours!

Something to think about: 

• Kind words can be short and easy to speak but their echoes are truly endless.

• He, who seeks revenge, digs two graves.

• No revenge is more honorable than the one not taken.

• A person is merely inviting future injuries if he tries to avenge past ones.

• Quarrels are the weapons of the weak.

• Cold words freeze people, and hot words scorch them, and bitter words make them bitter, and wrathful words make them wrathful.  Kind words . . . soothe, and quiet, and comfort the hearer.

• It is better to bite your tongue than to let it bite someone else.

Our bark is worse than our bite
Rickey Moore