2 Sides To Every Coin

Like a coin, decisions have two sides. Usually before a football game a coin is tossed and the teams get to choose head or tails. They have a 50% chance to gain some control, but it's control that could change the outcome of the game. One side of the coin represents silence. The other side represents voice. But there is a part of the coin that people don't pay attention to. The ridges. Believe it or not the ridges on certain coins today have a meaning behind it, and you might already know the purpose. Back in the day when coins were made of real gold and silver, dishonest people would sand down the edges (without ridges) of a coin to make it worth less. With the created edges, the government could tell more easily if the coin had been tampered with because of the ridges they created on the coin. The ridges exposed any type of damage that had been caused and the worth that had been shaved away. 


I was taught from a very early age that words are the voice of your heart. You can change your thoughts once they have been thought, but you can't take back your words once they've been given a voice. Perhaps this validates my introversion and formed my love of listening. One way or the other, I began to value words, the meaning behind them, and the certain voices that were given to them. Certain words strung together to create a strand of thoughts could draft even the simplest soft-spoken voice. Yet, on the other side of the coin can be used for manipulation and selfish reasons. One side demonstrates love while the other demonstrates hate. There is no in between. There is no "like". 


But what about the ridges? Does that give us an out? Does it allow us to go along riding the outside never to venture to the "heads or the tails"? No. The ridges simply represent the outcome of our decisions. We choose silence or spoken words, and either way we go...we get ridges. We still face the regret of our silence or the hurt we've caused with our words. It's the bumps in life that try to throw us to one side or the other. It's the result of the choice we just made. Take the ridges as they come. Don't anticipate their presence thinking you can swiftly lunge over or dodge under them. The ridges help us grow. They challenge us to see the decision we just made and how to make a better one the next time. They demonstrate the struggle we have on a day to day basis as we decide to swing to one side or the other. Sometimes they keep us humble, other times they make us arrogant. 


So before you speak, value your listener. Will a voice behind your thoughts add to their value? Would silence be better than words? Could it diminish your value by speaking or by keeping silent? Don’t let anyone steal your voice, but speak with care and concern. Listen when given the chance, speak the words of your heart and know that the decision you made may (will) come with ridges. Don’t let anyone shave away your ridges, or take away your value. Although sometimes we can’t see past our own insecurities, the ridges serve as a purpose of growth and not of harm.

Which side of the coin are you on and what have your ridges taught you?  

James 1:19

“Let everyone be swift to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger because the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.”

 Ephesians 4:29

“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”