Me & My Big MouthSample

Choose words that build up others.

You can do more damage with your words than you can with any other part of your body or any other thing you have control over. With technology and word-of-mouth potential, you can destroy a person with words and not even be in the same room with them.

There’s good news on the flip side of that, though: Your words have the power to build others up. The tongue really is a miraculous thing. We don’t see anything else in all of nature where two opposing things can come from the same source. The tongue has the power to destroy and the power to build up. 

Most of us had a teacher whose words encouraged us or a coach whose words inspired us. Maybe your grandma changed the way you see yourself with her kind words, or you still carry around a note your dad wrote you years ago. People choose hobbies, careers, and even spouses because of what someone else said to them.  

Words are free and always available. They have the power to change your life. And every day, in every conversation, you have the power to speak life-changing words to those around you. 

 This is not a mandate to avoid saying hard things. In fact, it’s the opposite. Paul’s encouragement in his letter to the Ephesians is to say “only what is helpful for building others up.” Sometimes that requires you to say hard things in a kind way—to dial into the emotions of those around you and to speak words that are helpful.

Can you imagine what would happen in your family, your marriage, or your workplace if you leaned into the power of words that build up? The words you say matter. Who needs to hear them today?