Are you speaking words of life into your home?
As parents, our words have a powerful impact on our kids. They can either be life-giving or destructive. Words are powerful and have great influence.
The words we speak embed themselves into our children’s minds. It’s so important that we are aware of the words we are pouring into our children and that we are speaking words of life to them.
King Solomon said, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.”
This post may contain affiliate links. You can read my full affiliate disclosure here.
Speaking Words of Life
Speaking words of life impact not only yourself but those around you as well. The power of words carries great weight. It’s vital to realize speaking life into yourself through God’s Word carries over into the words you speak to others.
Gary Chapman, the famed author of The Five Love Languages, shared a powerful metaphor that our words are either bullets or seeds in his book, Love as a Way of Life.
This vivid illustration makes me aware of not only the words I’m speaking to my children but also has brought a sensitivity to what words they are hearing via television, movies, and social gatherings.
When we become aware of our words and what words are being input into our children, we become are guard for their hearts and mind.
What does God say about speaking life?
Speaking words of life is all throughout the bible, beginning with the breath of life from God to create the heavens and the earth, and all that is in them. These are just a few examples from the bible that speak words of life and how God speaks wors of life.
Proverbs 18:21 The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.
Ephesians 4:29 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.
Proverbs 16:24 Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.
Proverbs 15:4 The soothing tongue is a tree of life, but a perverse tongue crushes the spirit.
Words of Life Not Death
We use words as bullets (death) whenever we speak harshly, criticize destructively, mock/taunt others with sarcasm, or toss around careless slurs.
Bullet words are damaging.
When we’re angry or upset, words tend to explode out of us. Sometimes we lash out with hurtful words in the heat of a moment.
Our words go flying, spraying out of us like bullets and if we’re honest, we really do not know the depth of impact our words have on the recipient.
Have you ever been in a store and overheard a parent on the next aisle over berating their child? Don’t you feel awful for the poor kid and wish you could scoop him up and tell him everything’s going to be alright?
It’s so easy to spot when bullets fly from someone else’s mouth. It’s disturbing and soul-sucking to be a witness to such carnage but the truth is, we are no different. Our words may not be the same, but we all have the same corruption and vileness of sin within us.
Bullets tear into the soul and destroy which is why it is so important to be mindful of our words and speak words of life to our family and those around us.
Words of Life, Seed-Planted Words
On the other hand, when we are speaking words of life, we plant seeds with words when we encourage, speak love, and build others up. Our relationships nurture, grow, and flourish from these words.
When we plant seeds with our words, we are speaking life into others that grow abundantly. The power of encouragement and nourishing words influences others to reach mountain tops, conquer dreams, and keep pushing forward.
You can see resurrection take place when…
…hope is spoken to a child defeated.
…encouragement is spoken dreams are achieved.
…reassurance is spoken courage is sparked.
…love is spoken walls are broken down and hearts are mended.
Mark Twain stated, “I can live for two months on a good compliment.” The sentiment is so true! A kind word or compliment can carry us for days while something harsh plummets and kills our souls.
I once heard it said that our children will become what you tell them they will be. How important it is that our words shape and mold our children with goodness and life!
Related: Ways to Reflect Christ Through Our Words
Speaking Life To Others
The words spoken into the life of a child are many times re-spoken into the next generation and can cause great damage. The cycle continues until a person in that lineage changes the pattern of the spoken word.
Our words are part of our legacy and reflect our values. Generations to come will feed off the values that are passed along. May our spoken words grow our lineage and plant seeds for feasts to come!
The Impact of Speaking Words of Life
Speaking words of life impact today and tomorrow!
Nathaniel Hawthorne noted, “Words – so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them.”
Our words are bullets or seeds.
Let’s use our words to plants seeds of life and nourish our home with abundant fruit!