WORDS AND PHRASES WE COULD
AVOID
When something
wonderful happens, we sometimes say: WOW, that’s “unbelievable!” Do we really
mean that we don’t believe it’s true? Nope. What about: “Holy Cow!” Maybe in
India, if you were Hindi and worshipped cows, but God doesn’t say anything that
lets us know that cows have been rendered holy. And what about when we are
experiencing pain in our bodies: “My foot is killing me!” We don’t
really mean it, do we? But words have power.
King Solomon,
the wisest man in the world, had a lot to say about words, “Death and life are
in the power of the tongue” (Prov. 18:21). “Thou art snared with the
words of thy mouth, thou art taken with the words of thy mouth” (Prov. 6:2). “A
fool’s mouth is his destruction, and his lips are the snare of his soul” (Prov.
18:7).
I knew a man
who kept saying, in jest: “I’m losing it.” He ended up losing his capacity for
thinking clearly, and he contracted a debilitating dementia. The Bible warns us
about using words and phrases that can take hold of us and hurt us, sometimes
without us even knowing that we brought it on ourselves.
Our brain hears
the words and phrases we speak and sends the message to the rest of our body,
which responds more to our own spoken words than to anyone else’s spoken words!
So if we continue to say things like, “I get the flu twice a year every year,”
our brain tells our body to expect it, and since our body is expecting it, it
doesn’t bother fighting back. We’ve called it in.
On the other
hand, we can use this principle to send positive messages to our bodies, like:
“My youth is renewed like the eagle’s” (Ps. 103:5).
God says: “I
create the fruit of the lips” (Is. 57:19). What comes out of our mouths is
created into our physical reality.
God Himself
created by speaking: “Let there be light,” “Let the waters bring forth
abundantly,” etc. (Gen. 1). When He created us in His image, He created us as a
“speaking spirit.” (Gen. 2:7 in the Chumash, the Hebrew first five books of the
Bible).
You and I are
to create by speaking also, just like God.
I’m asking the
Lord to make me more aware this week of some of the not-so-accurate words or
phrases I still use.
By changing a
few words and silly phrases here and there, we can change the direction and
outcome of our lives.
“Behold, we put bits in the horses' mouths,
that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body.
“Behold also the ships, which though they
be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a
very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth.
“Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great
things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!
“Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? Let
him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom” (James
3:3-5, 13).
Love, Carolyn
MY RECENTLY PUBLISHED ***WINGS: A JOURNEY IN FAITH*** Check it out on Amazon and GET YOUR COPY TODAY!
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