Words Have Power

"Keep your words soft and sweet, for one day you may have to eat them."

My phone rang this afternoon and a work colleague told me to check out today's London Free Press newspaper. A group of employees from The Centre of Hope had attended a presentation yesterday, as a financial foundation in the city donated a significant sum of money towards one of the Centre's new programs. The program is designed to equip residents of the hostel with the basic skills to manage their own finances and hopefully reduce the number of clients who are caught in the cycle of using and re-using the Salvation Army's services.
Anyway, I checked online and found my own words in print. Even before I read it, I was quite excited by the thought of having my words immortalized in print ...at least for the twenty-four hours before the next issue!
But after reading what was printed (click here for the full article), my first reaction was that I'd been misquoted. The article says:

"This is not just a cash deal, we're equipping people with skills," Ryan Parkin, chaplain for the Salvation Army, said.

He said he was happy to see an investment in education that could pick up where food and shelter leave off.

"If they are recurring visitors at the hostel, then obviously they don't have the skills to manage their finances. With this program, they won't find themselves in that cycle where they return every few weeks."

The quote was generally okay, except for the part that says that 'recurring visitors at the hostel obviously don't have the skills to manage their finances'. I would have prefered that it read "Many of the recurring visitors don't have the skills...." or "For those who don't have the skills...", but instead I'm quoted saying "If they are recurring visitors...then obviously, they don't have the skills". It sounds a bit strong to me, even if it does hit close to the mark.
I don't remember saying it quite like that and more importantly, I don't like to generalize. After all the people I've met at the Centre, I'd like to think that I'd be one of the last to generalize their abilities and skills. Text can be so emotionless! I'll assume you knew what I meant and didn't take offense!
I'm sure I'm making an issue (or at least a blog-post) out of nothing, but I guess it made me realize that written words have significant value, but maybe spoken words can contain a greater amount of emotion and intent. When we try and translate them from mouth to paper (and vice versa), we can lose some of the interpretation. It reminds me to be intentional and careful in what I say and also not to jump to conclusions in what I read. Words have power!