If You Don’t Have Anything Nice To Say…

Don’t say anything at all.

This is something most of us were told repeatedly as children, but for some reason, it didn’t carry over into adulthood.

I can still hear my mother scolding me for saying something mean to my little brother. Her favorite way to finish that scolding, remind me to keep my mouth shut if what I was about to say wasn’t nice.

The saying “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all” still rings in my ears every time something negative comes into my head.

If everyone would keep this in mind before speaking, there just might be a lot less fighting and arguing. There may be a lot less anger and a lot fewer misunderstandings.

How many times have you told your children to be nice, to speak kindly? But then you get into an argument and before you know it, you are shouting out rude comments.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of speaking unkindly towards others. Especially if they are negative, or make rude, disrespectful comments to you.

How hard is it just to say nice things? It shouldn’t be that difficult. Most of us know kindness when we see it, or hear it. So there really is no excuse for saying mean, hurtful things.