Gò0dNews for Everyone
The Power of Words
T
by Monica Gambrell
he God of the universe spoke it into being. Why
and the hurt remains. A dear friend of mine (Scott
do we envision that our own words as His
Bates) once witnessed the sad truth that sometimes
ambassadors have no power? We house His
my tongue can be vicious. In that instance, it lashed
Spirit in our bodies, and this truth is more powerful
out with insensitivity. Thankfully, Scott was gracious
than we can fathom with our finite minds.
enough to calmly take me aside and point out my sin.
Being a stay-at-home mother was unbelievably
After apologizing, I knew that even though we would
challenging but also a treasure beyond measure.
continue our friendship, my guilt would somewhat
Once, when they were young, and one of them had
taint it. Words. They are powerful. The same is true with encouragement. It stays with us, and we draw strength in the weakest of times from the power of those encouraging words. Once, when I was feeling particularly down, I received a sweet message from a complete stranger. Understand, I have never been physically attractive, so I have never really made an effort in that arena. When leaving work one day, a lady approached me and gave me a sincere compliment on my appearance. I was floored. I was in tears. I literally lost my breath. Truly powerful. My husband and I never celebrated Valentine’s Day. We never exchanged gifts of any kind on that day. He displayed his love for me 24/7/365. Besides, I don’t like hearts, chocolate, cut flowers, or commercialized sentiment. But he enlisted the help of our daughter, Rebekah, to purchase a Build-A-Bear for what would be our last Valentine’s Day together. He recorded a message for me that
thoughtlessly spoken harsh words to their sibling, I
I still treasure to this day. He wanted to inform me
attempted to teach them the power of the spoken word
that even when he wouldn’t physically be with me
with an age-old demonstration. I squirted an entire
anymore, I did have the strength to continue without
tube of toothpaste onto a paper plate and offered them
him. His spoken word resonates in me daily as I forge
a prize if any one of them could put it all back in the
forward without him.
tube. None could. We talked at length about how that
Ecclesiastes 11:6 confirms that we may not know
toothpaste represented our words. Once they leave our
whether the seed we sow with our words will prosper
mouths, they can’t be taken back. Even if the hearer
or not, but sow we must. We must allow His Word
forgives the offender, the words were heard,
to flow through us unimpeded. We must give proper
28 // December 2020
respect to the incredible power of the spoken word.
