The Power of Words

I am doing something this week I’ve never done before in my life.

I’ve gone away...for a week...alone...to write.

Never before has this happened.

I’m in a season of my life where I can do this now.  But even more importantly, I feel that God has asked this of me.  Go away...by myself...and write words...lots and lots of words.  And I have.

While I’ve been writing, I have thought a lot about words and the power they hold.  It’s one thing to stand up in front of people and speak words.  I’ve done that more times than I can count.  But people can walk away from I message that I’ve spoken and forget most of my words.  Sure, they’ll remember the important words.  Or the words that were really God speaking to them.  But they won’t remember every single word.  Just some.  Just the one’s that spoke to them.

But the written word is very different from the spoken word.  While the spoken word holds great power (the Bible tells us that “life and death are in the power of our words”), the written word holds equally as much power.  The written Word of God, the Bible, will never pass away.  But OUR written words don’t go away too soon either.  They are always there.  Staring back at you from the computer screen or the paper on which you write them.  And there’s something about seeing your words in black and white...you weigh them, you measure them, you contemplate them, you study them.  “Are those really the words I want people to read?”... I ask myself. “Do these words clearly communicate my heart and prayerfully, even more importantly, communicate God’s heart?”  Because you see, once those words are written and put “out there”, there’s no taking them back.  Sure, I could go back and publicly apologize or bring greater clarity to the intention of my words……but they are still there.  For everyone to see, to read, to feel and to interpret.

The written word is powerful...very powerful.

They give insight into my heart and soul.  They even describe the brokenness and pain that may reside there.  They are there for all to see, and read, and even feel within the reader’s own heart.

I’m writing a book.

There…I said it.  I have skirted that exact phrase FOREVER!!  I’ve said “writing project” or “working on putting a book together” or even called it aloofly “the book”, as if it were floating around somewhere out there and would fall into my lap one day.

But this week is the week.  No more messing around or talking it to death or thinking about it one more second.  It is time for me to write my book.  And I am writing like a mad woman!!  I’m writing my own story...through the story of a girl named Ruth…in the Bible.  And I’m feeling the power that words can hold.

There is power in the written word.  But there’s also healing, wholeness, and freedom in those same words.

What if every time you went to speak something in the heat of the moment, or in the aggravation at your spouse or the impatience with your children…that you wrote the words you’re going to say first?  And you saw them in black and white?  And you felt their power?  I have a feeling you would change what you were going to say.  Because many times, there is no accountability with your spoken words (especially within your own home) and we allow those words to just come flying out of our mouths.  And we do not realize their power, unless you’re the one on the receiving end of those words…then you very well know the power they hold…and the pain...and the hurt…and the wounds words can carry.

The Bible has much to say about our spoken words and their power.  We need to be more deliberate, purposeful and careful with the words we allow to come out of our mouths.  Before you speak those words, I challenge you to write them down.  And see them.  And read them.  And feel them.  Then, make a choice to speak words of life, not death.

Trust me, words are very powerful.  I know…I’ve been writing a lot of them this week!