“The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.”
Proverbs 18:21
In the Bible, there are many instructions about our words and how we speak. Most instruct us about controlling the tongue and warn of the consequences of our words.
These instructions reinforce the principle that words matter.
The words we speak matter.
The words we hear matter.
The words we tolerate or ignore or accept matter.
The words we read and watch and internalize all matter.
Most of us can remember a time when encouraging words built us up, but I would guess there are almost double the times that we remember when words tore us down. What I find interesting is often we have an opposite memory of our own words. We remember more the words of encouragement than discouragement that we speak to others. This simple trip through your memories gives a glimpse of the power of words on a personal level.
In our current culture, words are powerful and constant. The age of 24 hour news and social media has created an environment where we are continually bombarded by words. Some of us use a lot of words in these arenas as well.
Once we recognize the power of words and our constant contact with words, we can pause and reflect on how we want to act.
I believe that most people want to be encouragers. Most people want to speak words of hope and life, but we can get derailed by what we are ingesting.
What do we learn when we evaluate what we are putting in and determine if it is feeding words of death and pain or life and hope? Most likely, it is a mixture. Realizing the input and output of negative words, is the first step to changing our action.
We must be aware of what we are ingesting and put up barriers to the input that is not beneficial so that when we speak, we are a benefit to others.
“The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.”
Proverbs 18:21
We have the choice of what kind of fruit we will eat. If we ingest and spread words of death, we will have rotten fruit to eat. If we ingest and spread words of life, we will have delicious fruit to eat.
Words matter. Words have consequences.
Take the first step today to be aware of what words are influencing you so that your voice will benefit others.
KATHY PIERBURG 