Your Words Have Power

YOUR WORDS HAVE POWER*

Help Comes In Many Ways

I've been thinking of seven little words spoken by a real estate agent nearly twenty years ago. He was not a big talker but he did his job well.

We didn't need all the space in the large home we had been renting, so we were looking to buy a small condo.

The housing market was tight, but we finally found a 2BD/2BA unit in a former apartment complex with older construction. This meant no sound barriers between unit walls or floors. 

Hopes Can Burst Like Balloons

We had moved to the area with high hopes. But my husband's employment opportunity had not turned out as expected and I was working temporary jobs, which I hated.

I guess my frustration must have been noticeable. We signed the papers, but not with joy. 

As the agent was leaving he simply said, "Things have a way of getting better." That was it . . . seven little words spoken quietly and calmly from a man we did not see again.

Words are interesting things. Even short and simple ones have inherent power.

Perhaps you remember chanting as a child, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me." You didn't have to live very long to know that, though it was fun to say, in reality it was a lie.

Sticks and stones may break bones and we'll recover, but hurtful words can abide inside us forever.

I've worked with both children and adults who were timid and using less than half their awesome potential because someone in their past had said, "You're stupid. You can't do anything right. Get out of the way. You don't know what you're doing!"

Words With Negative Power

Negative words entered through their ears into their mind and spirit, playing like a cassette tape with automatic lifetime rewind.

Don't underestimate the power of your words. It's not just what you say, but also how you say it.

"You fat little baby," can sound harmless when said in a soft cooing way by a mother with smiling eyes. But the same words hold a different power when said harshly by a caregiver who is glaring at a little one in need of a diaper change.

Proverbs 16:24 in the Amplified Bible says, "Pleasant words are as a honeycomb, sweet to the mind and healing to the body." 

Words, like bees, have the power to both sting and make honey. 

Bees Can Sting and Make Honey

Honeycombs are six-sided cumulative structures, built and filled cell by cell. From birth we are like honeycombs, holding on to what we hear from people around us. 

As adults we like to think that words can no longer hurt us, but let's be honest, they do.

Whether we are on the giving or receiving end, words have staying power. Sometimes we have the first word, sometimes the last.

The question is, "Will it be a sharp sting or sweet honey?" 

*This story is from my book REFLECTIONS: Inspirational Stories from Everyday Life--original title: Word Power; available from BookLocker.com)