The Power of Words

How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong.  Because someday in your life you will have been all of these. ~George Washington Carver

Have you ever spoken harshly to someone?  I know I have many times.  Do you ever think of the damage that is done by the words we speak?  Children are the most vulnerable individuals on this earth.  God gives children as a blessing in life and they are often treated more harshly than adults. Adults have defenses through experience, but children don’t.   

Children are not ours to do with as we please and it is not just parents that are responsible for their view of the world.  Every person on earth who sees or interacts with a child is responsible for their development.  If you are a parent, grandparent, uncle, aunt, teacher or friend you make a difference in a child’s life.  Every word and action we use toward children will be recorded and used later as a reference.  Max Lucado spoke at our church this weekend and one of the things that stuck with me was he used the example of a rock and a sponge.  Adults sometimes have hearts that are like rock hardened by circumstances of life.  If you drop a rock in a bowl of water it will not absorb the water.  Children’s hearts are like a sponge.  Whatever they hear they absorb and whatever they absorb will come out of their hearts later.   

The words we use with children matter.  You may not think they are significant, but to a child, they can mean the difference between a productive life or total devastation.  I observe parents today that yell at their children; abuse them by belittling them or embarrassing them in front of others.  Parents tell their children that they will never amount to anything or that they are worthless and the worst are those who physically abuse their children.  There is scientific proof that if you tell someone something often enough they will start to believe it and become that very thing. There are seeds of greatness in every child waiting to be cultivated.  What type of seeds are you planting in your children?

Each of us were children at one time.  There were seeds planted in us at a young age that affect the adults we have become.  Do you want to pass on the legacy of the broken child you are or break the cycle?  We need to learn to think before we speak.   

I wonder what God will have to say to those of us who harm innocent children by the words we speak and our actions.  We may think it is funny to make jokes at our children’s expense but I don’t expect that God will share that view.

                  

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, my heart breaks for children.  I have been guilty in the past of saying harsh things to children.  Please forgive me for that sin.  I want to be a light to the children of this world.   It is not possible for me to be that light if I don’t use the light you give me for that purpose.  Please help me to only use eternal words that lift others up and that give the children of this world a picture of You.   

Scripture:   The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.  Proverbs 18:21

Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.  James 1:25-27

Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him.  Psalm 127:3

He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them.  And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.  Matthew 18:2-4