I have been thinking a lot about words recently. There is much to say about words and how we use them. How am I using my words? Do I think about what I am saying and how I am saying it? Do I truly understand the power my words possess? Are my words bringing life or death?
There are so many mediums in which we rely on words. Speech is only one. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, texting, blogging, and every other place we can leave comments and feedback are all filled with words. Words are everywhere.
Death and life are in the power of the tongue, (Proverbs 18:21a) Now before you go off about how this is talking about the tongue or spoken words and not words typed out on the internet you must understand the meaning of the word tongue. With a little bit of study it becomes apparent that this word can mean speech or language. In fact Vine states that “the manner of one’s “speech” is considered to be the external expression of the character of the speaker.”* This would be all words used by an individual not just the spoken ones.
Ok enough with the word lesson and back to the questions at hand. How am I using my words? Are my words bringing life or death to the hearer/reader? I do not think that we get the understand that my words have on 3 functions: life, death , or idleness. (We will look at idleness another time and it’s not good.) I also do not think that we understand just how many people are reading/hearing our words. I have somewhere between 2 and 3 hundred friends on my Facebook. Every time I write a status people see it and LOTS of those people will never like, comment or leave any evidence that they have read what I wrote. I forget they are there until perhaps I have a real life conversation with them and they say something in regards to a status or comment conversation I had with someone else. At first I am like “whoa who has been talking about me?” and then I remember I live in a glass house called the internet. People read my words. Even if it is only 3 people my words are being absorbed by someone. Am I bringing them life or am I bringing them death? This is something we all must begin to ponder as we use our words so casually to communicate.
I will leave you with these 2 thoughts. First, it has been said ‘the pen is mightier than the sword” but I would say “Words are mightier than the sword”. Be careful how you yield them. Second, we grew up with the saying “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” That was a lie.
Breath Life Word 