The Power of Words

Words are everything! With words, according to scripture, we can build up and encourage to faith or tear apart a persons soul. With words the earth was formed and given purpose and meaning. With words dreams are envisioned, communicated, and created. We think in words, speak with words, and live out words. Words really do paint worlds.

Last night I tried to communicate a dream. It was shot out of the sky like a flung pigeon on a shotgun range. Dust was all that formed out of the words I used. Why. I used the wrong words. While the words perfectly communicated the picture that was powerfully clear in my soul they painted a completely different image in the hearts and minds of that room. Why? Because for different people, and without you knowing it, words can be loaded.

Words have memory for people. Certain words have been experienced in certain ways by people in their past that is forever connected to that cluster of consonants and vowels. They can carry fear, or hurt, and even delight. They are loaded. They are triggers that can ignite emotional responses and paint their own picture.

Scripture actually says to speak the truth in love. It is one of the most misinterpreted scriptures in the bible. Most using it as justification to let out their anger and frustration on others. Rather, a proper interpretation of this passage is to speak truth in the best possible way that a person would receive it in love. It's about the other person when you speak love, not you. Making truth only about you is a big mistake. After all Jesus didn't die on the cross just to save you.

What I failed to do was to consider the people I was communicating the dream to and the context of which I was in. After all communication is again less about you and more about the person/s you are speaking to. This requires sensitivity you don't have, knowledge you don't possess, and motive that is others focused. The only place I have found to acquire such things is at the feet of Jesus. Had I considered prayer in that moment the picture was becoming clearly misunderstood, the outcome could have been different. I failed to communicate my heart and it was only my fault.

So realize the power your words have to paint worlds, and subsequently, to destroy them. Also realize the grace that exists in Christ to scrap that painting and start again.