Words are the most powerful weapon and have a long-lasting impact. May we live and leave behind a legacy of love and hope through the words we speak.
Have you ever been encouraged by someone else’s words? A friend? A family member? A teacher perhaps?
The word encourage is defined as “to speak courage into”. To speak courage into! How many times have we needed that in our own lives? And what a great comfort when we find it. Some of the best words stick with us for a lifetime. Their power seems only to increase when the one who spoke them is no longer around.
Legacy of Love
This year has been one of those years where I have visited the funeral home far too many times and the newborn nursery not nearly enough. The world has lost a lot of good men. But when I begin to think back on some of the truly great people I have known in my life, I realize they are never truly gone. Their words still linger long after their physical bodies have left this world behind. They have left a legacy of love and light that inspires the rest of us to be better.
Listening to all of these eulogies got me to thinking, what do I want to be remembered for when I am gone? What do I want to leave behind?
Words Matter
While words can be used to bring people together, they can also be used to rip them apart. Just one quick glance on social media tells you that words are oftentimes used more like a sword to cut people down than a hand to lift them up. If you want to see just how hateful and vile man can be, look no further than the comment section of any news post.
Words are the most powerful weapon any of us have. The words we speak to others, the words we speak to ourselves, have a long-lasting impact that will persist long after any physical injustices have healed.
The most useful piece of advice you learn in any writing class is the significance of the first and last sentence—this is the main impression you will leave your audience with. In the beginning of the Bible, the very first official act, God speaks light into existence. What greater example could He leave us with?
And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness.
Genesis 1:3-4
Speak Light
Our words have the power to build people up or tear them down. They have the ability to encourage or inhibit. Our words can promote peace or harbor hate. Each moment, each breath, each word we speak. We only get one choice, so what will it be?
The tongue can bring death or life;
Proverbs 18:21a, NLT
Each day is a new chance to choose, choose wisely. While things are stronger where they were once broken, if not allowed to heal properly, they leave scar tissue that never fully heals. Be the balm that soothes the weary soul, the cast that helps strengthen someone’s broken areas.
Use your words to build people up, so they can rise up!
Speak Life
Not only did God speak light into existence, but He spoke life into existence.
Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness.”
Genesis 1:26
But God did not just create life, He created us to live that life fully and with purpose.
I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
John 10:10
And there is no greater way to live a life in abundance than by giving to others. There is no greater purpose than to love others and bring them to the One who is Love. Sometimes we may have nothing more to give than our kindness–our kind words, our kind deeds. Currency is not only made of green paper.
In my job, we are required to take a CPR class every two years to learn how to resuscitate someone if the need ever arises. Luckily, it hasn’t. But I wonder, how many times have I come across someone in need of emotional resuscitation? Someone who needs me to breathe life back into their situation? Or someone who needed me to circulate fresh air—a fresh way of seeing things—into their lives? How many times have you? And how many times have we been too busy to even recognize the warning signs?
Words Pierce the Darkness
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… In Him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
John 1:1,4-5
May our words be used to build others up, today and every day. Let our words be the balm that soothes the weary soul. Let our words be the light that leads people out of the darkness. Finally, let our words be the light that leads others to salvation through Christ.
There is no greater way to live a life in abundance than by giving to others. There is no greater purpose than to love others and bring them to the One who is Love. Click To Tweet
