The power of words

The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

James 3:6

If God granted us humans and “super powers”, it would be the power of our spoken words. Just like how God spoke the whole universe into being, and how Jesus’ words allowed the blind to see and the dead to live, we too have been given this power from God. Yet more often than not, we take so lightly of the words we speak, unaware of their consequences.

I remember reading in the news several times of people who’ve passed away in freak accidents, only to find out that before everything occurred, they’d say things like “oh I’m probably not gonna make it back alive” or “this picture would make a great headshot for my funeral!”. They were joking, the look at what really ended up happening. It’s events like these that remind me, the power of the tongue isn’t just limited to Christians. We’ve all been given the same gift by God, but how we choose to use them is up to us.

While I try not to curse myself like this, I often end up cursing others. And you know what? It’s crazy, because I see that the more I call someone useless and hopeless, the more useless and hopeless they actually become! Not to say that it’s all my doing, but I can’t help but think “would things have been different if I had spoken words of encouragement instead?”

For me the taming of the tongue is one of the toughest things I’m learning. I have a knack for being mean, and sadly, the amused response I get from people only encourages me to keep going at it. It takes serious self-control, along with a large helping of God’s grace, to control this wildfire of a tongue. But I’m learning. After all, it only affects the entire course of my life.