Words that are Kind, Part II

Well, how did the weekly "Kindness Campaign" work for anyone? I know that I was doing pretty well until about day 6. The idea of having our words be a "life-giving fountain" gave my conversation much needed direction. It also reminded me that our words have power behind them.

In God's awesome power, He is able to speak things into existence. The creation account in Genesis 1 gives clear insight into how the world was created; with the divine imperative..."Let there be..."

...light. And it was so.

...a space between the waters, to separate the waters of the heavens from the waters of the earth. And it was so.

...waters beneath the sky flow together into one place, so dry ground may appear. And it was so.

He continued to create the universe(!) as we know it by a command of His voice.

Can you imagine what it would be like to have similar powers with our voice? I, for one, would be commanding silly things such as "Let there be ice cream sundaes" or "Let my walls be painted...teal! No, green! Maybe red?"

While we are not able to physically create anything out of nothingness by a simple command, we are able to help shape and influence others with our words. And that in turn can create positive or negative attitudes, behaviors, and actions.

In a previous post I mentioned that I was about to begin Shaunti Feldhahn's "For Women Only" Bible study with some girls from my Sunday school class. We met last night to discuss our first week of study and the challenges that were presented. One of which was to not say anything negative to our husbands or anything negative about them. Feldhahn's challenge was attempting to forge a direct link between our feelings and our actions. Judging by the responses of my groupmates, it had been a tough week. Yes, having only kind things to say is a difficult task indeed. But how do we attempt to accomplish that?

In 2 Corinthians 10:5, Paul instructs us to "take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." Clearly when I flippantly toss about an unkind word or monologue, I'm not taking the time to take those thoughts and sift them through Christ's love. As mentioned in Words that are Kind, there are oodles of proverbs that detail godly speech. Below are a few that continue to remind us to think first, then speak:

Proverbs 15:28, "The heart of the godly thinks carefully before speaking; the mouth of the wicked overflows with evil words."

Proverbs 29:20, "There is more hope for a fool than for someone who speaks without thinking."

So this week's challenge on the Kindness Campaign is to slow your dang tongue down! Rein it in along with your thoughts before you speak. I'm convinced a few extra nanoseconds could be of benefit to us all in dealing with others.