Wednesday, April 30, 2014

The power of your words…

Proverbs 15:4 (LB), "Gentle words cause life and health."  Your words can cause life and your words can cause health.  That's the power of gentle words. 

A pastor a few years ago went into a hospital room and there was a man who'd been in a coma for several months, no motion, no movement, just a flat out coma.  The man's wife was there and the doctor walked in.  The doctor said in the presence of the man in the coma, "You just need to prepare yourself, because he's probably not going to come out of this."  And he walked out of the room.  The pastor, in horror, couldn't believe what he'd just heard.  So he walked over to the man in the coma, got down into his face, and said, "John, I know you heard that doctor and I know you heard what he said.  But he's wrong and you are going to make it and you are going to come out of this coma."  And he said tears formed and began to run down either side of his cheek.  That man not only did come out of the coma but he's active in the church today.  He said the turning point was when the pastor said to him "You are going to make it." 

You have no idea the power of your words to hurt or to heal to your kids, your husband or wife, your friends, your co workers.  There is tremendous power in kind and encouraging words.  They are often the turning point in a person's life.  So you speak the truth in love.

Ask yourself, "Who could I encourage today?"  Proverbs 12:25 (LB), "A word of encouragement does wonders!"  Give more strokes than pokes. 

Project for this week:  I want you to encourage every person that you meet this week.  Everybody is having a tough time and everybody is hurting somewhere.  Become an encourager rather than a discourager. 

Any fool can be negative.  It takes no brains at all to be a critic.  They never build statues to critics.  They build statues to people who are criticized by critics all their lives.  Anybody can be negative.  It takes character to be positive in a negative world.  Anybody can swear; you can teach a parrot to swear.  It takes no intelligence at all.  It takes genuine character to speak the truth in love and to be positive in whatever you say.

Just a thought from the front porch

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