Words MatterSample

Words Matter

In the moment where you’re aching
and don’t want to be,
A well-timed word can set you free.

Growing up, I loved sports. Thankfully, I had people around me, such as family and friends, who encouraged me in my athletic aspirations from basketball to soccer to football to track. However, I let their encouragement get to my head a little bit too much. I knew I was good, and I wanted to make sure you knew it too.

Upon starting high school, I knew I was going to be the star player of the basketball team. No question. Also, I was the new kid, so I gained a bit of attention from the girls. There was one girl in particular that I liked a lot, and one day I found myself trash talking around her.

She let me finish, and then she spoke up: “Alex, you know you’re cocky, right?”

Her words crushed me. That moment taught me that our words have the power to build up and tear down. To inflate and deflate. But, if words have such power to kill, that means they have the power to give life all the more.

Jesus put his power through words on display when he raised his friend, Lazarus, to life. At the time, Lazarus had been dead for four days. He had already started to stink, and all Jesus said to raise him to life was: “Lazarus, come out!”

Three simple words led to a body being filled with life. Two, if you don’t count Lazarus’ name. It doesn’t take much to speak life into someone’s situation. It’s actually recommended that you listen more than you speak, so, when you do speak, you’re speaking words that person needs to hear rather than speaking words that might do more harm than good.

What words will you share today?

Writing Prompt: You can speak life into someone today with encouraging words. Car Window Poetry exists for you to write kind poems and anonymously share them on unsuspecting people’s car windows. To participate, get your download of Car Window Poetry cards and write four encouraging poems based on today’s Scripture readings. Share your poems on cars around you!