“The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its
fruit.” Proverbs 18:21
Some wise person has said, "Words have incredible power. They can
make people’s hearts sore, and they can make people’s hearts soar."I am afraid we fail to remember how powerful our words are and therefore we get careless.
As
a boy, Larry Crabb was very self-conscious because he stuttered but now he is Dr. Larry Crabb and a popular
speaker and psychologist. He recalls one time as a young man when felt pressure
by expectation to pray out loud because that was the tradition of his church.
In a terribly confused prayer, he recalled “thanking the Father for hanging on
the cross and praising Christ for triumphantly bringing the Spirit from the
grave.”
When he finished the painful prayer, he vowed that he would never speak or pray out loud again in front of a group.
When he finished the painful prayer, he vowed that he would never speak or pray out loud again in front of a group.
At the end of
the service, he wanted to escape before any of the elders came to correct his
theology. But Jim Dunbar caught him before he could get out.
“Larry, there’s one thing I want you to know.
Whatever you do for the Lord, I’m behind you one thousand percent.”
Larry wrote in
his book, “Even as I write these words, my eyes fill with tears. I have yet to
tell that story to an audience without at least mildly choking. Those words
were life words. They had power. They reached deep into my being.”
Let me ask you, “What if Jim Dunbar would
have offered words of rebuke to young Larry rather than words of grace? Do you
think Larry Crabb would be DR.
Larry Crabb today if this Christian Brother had said something hurtful instead
of something helpful?
I
heard about a woman whose dad owned a grocery store when she was growing up,
and several times a week the milkman would come to deliver milk to the store,
and every time he saw her he would say, "How is my little Miss America
doing today? So beautiful and so talented." Every day, he would stack the
milk he would say, "How is my little Miss. American doing? So beautiful
and so talented." This went on for years and years, just building that
into her. Well when she was a high school junior she entered her first pageant,
and her goal was to become Miss America. When she won the Miss America title in
the 1980’s, she gave the credit to the milkman. She said, "Those words
motivated me and shaped my life."
Words are powerful! What are you saying to your kids? Your spouse?
Will your words spoken today be healing words or hurting words?
Words are powerful! What are you saying to your kids? Your spouse?