Life or Death?

Happy Friday, Friends!

I hope and trust this post finds you all having a great day as a glorious new day begins to dawn in my Sweet Home Alabama!

We started a new sermon series at church last weekend titled, “The Power of the Mouth.” This is going to be such a great series! This Happy Friday is going to be short, sweet, and hopefully give you all a different perspective.

Pastor Steve shared Proverbs 18:21:

21 The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.

If you have been in or around church, you have probably read or heard this scripture. But then Pastor Steve said something like this; “Are the words you are speaking the death of joy for others? The death of your marriage? The death of your child’s dream?” Whoa! That hit different.

So here we are, Friends. What are our words doing? If we take an audit of our words, are they:

·        Bringing life or death to the joy in others?

·        Bringing life or death to our marriages and significant relationships?

·        Bringing life or death to our children’s dreams?

And I can’t help but focus in on that last part; “and those who love it will eat its fruit.” What do you think that means? A Google search says it could mean to have respect for the power of the tongue or it could be a warning against talking too much. I don’t know, something tells me it means something different. I think it has to do with eating the fruit of bringing life to the joy in others (we are in more joyful environments), eating the fruit of bringing life to our marriages and significant relationships (we have positive, healthy relationships), and bringing life to our children’s dreams (we have children who are healthy, happy, and pursuing the greatness that is within them)…or we will eat a different fruit. Ultimately, that will be up to us by the words we CHOOSE to speak!

I don’t know about y’all but when I look at it that way…Wow! Just, Wow! I can read the scripture, and I go, “Oh yeah, life or death. Cool, I get it.” But I don’t get it!!! When it is brought up in terms of killing the joy in another, killing my marriage, or killing my kids’ dreams, well, that makes my heart hurt. That makes me want to be a better man, husband, father, leader, and friend. How about you?

I am going to close with a few quotes for you all to thoughtfully consider:

"Be mindful when it comes to your words. A string of some that don't mean much to you, may stick with someone else for a lifetime." – Rachel Wolchin 

"Be careful with your words. Once they are said, they can be only forgiven, not forgotten."

- Unknown 

"Words are seeds that do more than blow around. They land in our hearts and not the ground. Be careful what you plant and careful what you say. You might have to eat what you planted one day." – Unknown 

“Words are singularly the most powerful force available to humanity. We can choose to use this force constructively with words of encouragement, or destructively using words of despair. Words have energy and power with the ability to help, to heal, to hinder, to hurt, to harm, to humiliate and to humble.” - Yehuda Berg 

“Words are the most powerful thing in the universe...Words are containers. They contain faith, or fear, and they produce after their kind.” - Charles Capps

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if there is ever anything I can do for you or your family. I will always help you any way I can. You can reach me at kevin@whatwillyourinfluencebe.com.

Have a great day, a wonderful weekend, please cherish your precious family, and please stay well!

Kev