Do Your Words Bless or Curse? Chose Them Carefully.
Cindy Cook emphasizes the immense power of words and urges readers to choose them carefully for self-talk and communication with others, aligning them with God’s will.
(The Importance of Choosing Your Words Wisely)
According to the Merriam-Webster and Oxford dictionaries, there are over 470,000 words in commonly-used English. Research indicates that on average a person speaks 6,000 to 16,000 words a day, depending on which study you read and the characteristics of the individuals studied.
According to Gyles Brandeth, author of “The Joy of Lex: How to Have Fun with 860,341,500 Words”, the average person will speak 860,341,500 words in their lifetime. Although I question the use of “average” – personal characteristics, context, and culture creates many types of “average” – and how someone arrived at that precise number of words, we can all agree that most of us talk a lot during our lifetimes. (And ladies, studies commonly indicate you speak about twice as many words in a given time period than men. That’s neither good nor bad, for women or men, it is just different, for reasons best left to another article.)
Words are one of the most powerful forces in the universe. And the power of words partnered with thoughts, ideas, and emotions is difficult, if not impossible, to overstate. They can create; they can kill. They can build; they can destroy. They can heal; they can hurt. They can lift someone up; they can tear someone down.
Ideas and thoughts are expressed by small words and large words. History is full of wars, battles, great political movements, and era-defining events that have begun with a few words.
Is there anything as impermanent as a spoken word that dissipates into the air within a second or two of its utterance – or as permanent in how words, strung together in certain potent ways, have driven and impacted human history?
As individuals, the power of our words is one of our greatest weapons or greatest gifts, depending on we use them. The Bible states that in our tongue we have the power of life and death (Proverbs 18:21). It also tells us, “The soothing tongue is a tree of life, but a perverse tongue crushes the spirit” (Proverbs 15:4).
So, brothers and sisters, ask yourselves: “How often do I use my words as a weapon against ME or as a gift to ME [negative versus positive self-talk]? How often do I use my words as a weapon against others? As a gift to others? Are my words spoken in obedience to God. Do they please Him? Do they glorify Him? What do the words I think and speak say about the kind of person I am?”
Choose your words wisely. Let us agree in prayer that God will help us to 1) speak more carefully and wisely in all circumstances, giving preference to listening and learning; 2) speak words that please and glorify Him; 3) speak words that edify others at times and in ways that He would have us to; and 4) think, speak, and allow admission into our minds only those words that help us grow in Christ and that bring peace, joy, and healthfulness to ourselves and others in our households.
Cindy Cook
Minister of Outreach and Education
