Life-giving Words

Life-Giving Words

The tongue can bring death or life; those who love to talk will reap the consequences.

Proverbs 18:21

One year when I attended family camp, I had an encounter with God through someone else’s words—although I wouldn’t know just how meaningful they would be until much later in life. As I was waiting for my parents to finish their conversations after an evening meeting, one of the other moms approached me and told me that she believed I would write for God someday. In that time and at that moment, her words didn’t mean much to me. Sure, I liked to write, but I was certainly no prodigy. My poetry and fiction attempts were, quite frankly, mediocre.

Yet over the years, her words would return to me again and again until they eventually settled into my bones, seeping into the very marrow of who I was and who I would become. The kindness of her words—and of her going out of her way to speak into my life, even though I was a stranger—had a lasting effect.

I think about other words that have spoken life or death to me, shaping me into who I’ve become: supportive words from my dad and a professor who both encouraged my writing, hurtful words from a bully that lingered for years, painful words during teenage breakups of friendships and relationships, the daily words of love and affirmation from my husband and children. All these experiences, whether the words were painful or affirming, made a lasting impression on me. They are words that I hear on repeat in the back of my mind; words that play on my deepest insecurities or bolster my confidence on days that it falters. Our words—with their power to heal or harm, to bring life or death—have profound, lifelong effects that are often impossible to gauge in the heat of the moment. We never know when our words might impact someone’s life path or influence their calling. It’s a sobering thought and a great responsibility. Do you regularly speak words of encouragement to the people in your life?

—Kristin

— Today’s Act of Kindness —

Use kind words to encourage or lift up someone else.