Words!

Words have immense power, both bringing life and causing death. Proverbs 18-21

It’s hard to believe that teachers, students, and parents are getting back to school and back to the routine that goes with it! The first day of school can be traumatic especially for the kindergarten classes because some parents have a hard time saying the word, good bye. When the teachers manage to pry the kids away from the parents, the three words or phraases most often heard from the parents are, I love you, mind your teacher, see you later, or do your best!

Words have the ability to bring both positive or negative consequences. They can impact relationships and self esteem, build up or tear down, encourage or discourage, inspire or demoralize. Words reveal the condition of our heart, and they should be those of encouragement rather than words of anger, judgment, or criticism.

Words have incredible power. The story is told of a teacher who had the same group of students when they were in the third grade, and she had them again when they were in the ninth grade. She immediately noticed the change in attitude and the condition of their heart near the beginning of the new year, so she gave them an assignment.

The teacher had the students take out a piece of paper, write the name of each person in the class, and then write the nicest thing they could think about of this person. She took the list and composed a list for each of the students of the nicest words their classmates had written about them.

Nothing was said, but in later years one of their classmates was killed in Viet Nam. At the funeral, his mother pulled out the paper of the nicest words the classmates had written about him and explained that he took this paper with him as he fought in Viet Nam. At that point, others in the class revealed that they, too, kept this paper and read the kind words frequently. Words have power.

God used words to create the world. Words like, let there be light, let the birds fly, let the earth bring forth vegetation, and let us make humankind in our image. Genesis says that He spoke these words, He didn’t just think them. The words we speak have power.

Parents speak words in raising their children. Words like, Lord help me, Lord forgive me, Lord show me the way, and Lord thank you. Speaking the words gives us power and strength than we don’t have.

As a teacher, we learned that positive words get much greater results with students than negative ones. If you start a sentence with “DON’T”, the negative connitation is there. For example, rather than saying “don’t run” use the word, “walk”, and it gets more attention.

Lately, I’ve wondered if we could write a message to God with only three words, what would it be? I think mine would be Lord, thank you. Most of us, myself included, love to hear words of thanks and appreciation because there is a lot of power in words of gratitude. I realized that I don’t say those words enough.

Samuel Lebowitz, a lawyer who saved seventy eight people from the electric chair admited that not one of them reached out to say thank you for his help. It’s the same with many professions. The author William Steiger was asked if he could remember how he became such a master of words, and he pointed to one specific teacher. After the interview, he wrote her a letter of thanks. She wrote back these words, “I taught school for over fifty years, and yours is the first note of thanks I have ever received.” Words of gratitude and thanks can warm a cold heart.

As this new school year begins, it would be great to start it with words that are filled with inspiration, affirmation, and gratitude! “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.” Psalm 19:14