Instant Word Pictures

“Reckless words pierce like a sword,
    but the tongue of the wise brings healing.”

 Proverbs 12:18

Suppose you had the ability to immediately see the impact of your words?

In an unguarded moment of anger and frustration you say to your child:

“You’ll never amount to anything useful!”

Without delay, as if playing on a huge drive-in movie screen, you see your child some 50 years later; laying in a gutter, homeless and destitute. 

Do you think that might change how you speak?

Now suppose you said to that very same child:

“You are such a blessing from the Lord and He will do great things through your life as you continually surrender it to Him!”

Same screen, totally different picture.

It is 50 years later again but it is also as if it was a different child all grown up.

This one is impacting his world greatly for the Kingdom of God.

What was the difference?

The words that were sown like seeds into his life grew into the future spoken to him.

But they grew quite differently in each.

As a matter of fact, they grew as differently as the choice of words that were spoken.  

Can the Spirit of the Lord bring victory in our lives regardless of past hurtful words?

Absolutely, you know that He can.

But my message today is more for the speaker than the one spoken too.

Like the person pictured yesterday with an all day case of “morning breath”, we have the ability to speak life or death into others. We particularly have an impact in the lives of our children because of the role we play in influencing who they become.

So choose your words wisely with an eye to their future.

Before you speak a toxic word to them, spit it out!