by

Pastor B.J. Knefley

Words can bless, curse, lift, tear down, and create or destroy life. God said that we were made in His image. He spoke, and the worlds were created. We too have creative power in our words. The question isn’t if we have that power; it’s what we do with it.

Children learn very quickly that their words have power. Words often express feelings and fears. When threatened, we use our words to push people away or to overpower them. Words are frequently used to demean, ridicule, and otherwise devalue another to bolster the person using them. Again, children are remarkably inept at this.

Remember this: what we live with, we learn; what we learn, we practice; what we practice, we become. Behaviors we have incorporated into our lives will continue unless we choose to change them. If we have learned to use words to manipulate and control people, we will continue to do so. Conversely, if we’ve been the recipient of those words and have allowed words to control, manipulate, and otherwise let the words of others form us, then we will continue to do so throughout our lives. Once we cave into the words of others, we set ourselves up for a pattern of abuse. Only we can change it. The saying that sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me is not true; words do hurt.

Psalm 19:14 states, “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” Good words to live by, but do we do it? In most cases, probably not. Why? I believe the answer is a simple one. First, our hearts are not about pleasing God but pleasing ourselves, and second, hurt people hurt people. Yes, our hurtful words often come from our own hurts stored in our hearts. The problem isn’t about others; it’s about us. To that end, we must choose to deal with ourselves if life will change. Think about it.