Hello everybody! Happy new year! It's been awhile since I last posted. I'm sorry.
What happened since my last post:
- I took my finals (I did get an A in the class that I mentioned in my last post, btw!).
- Traveled to Portland and Seattle for Christmas break.
- Got to see some friends from home while I was there.
- Spent Christmas with one of my favorite families, which consists of two of my favorite kids!
- Flew back to cold, dry, boring OKC (jk, there's a place in my heart for OKC, but it's below Portland).
- Classes started today.
That's basically what has been going on in my life.
The Power of Words
One thing I've learned over the break is that often times, we (humans) use words too loosely.
I know I do this all the time. I would walk by a store and say "omg this is the best store ever" and then walk to the next store and say the same thing. Or I would be talking about a friend of mine to another person, and the conversation would go something like this:
"That guy? Omg yes he is my best friend."
"I thought your best friend was so and so"
"Yeah, she is my best friend too."
"Everyone is your best friend!"
That is actually a legit conversation that I had with my friends.
I sometimes get a little over dramatic with my expressions that I end up with 30 best friends and 50 favorite stores. Did I mean what I said? Perhaps not. Of course, the example that I gave probably wouldn't do any harm or hurt anybody's feelings, but if someone doesn't mean the small things that he or she says, how do you know if he means the big and important things that he says?
I got Joyce Meyer's book "Change Your Words Change Your Life" from my pastors in Oregon (yes, I have pastors in every city) as a Christmas gift. I am only on the third chapter of the book and I've already learned so much! As you can tell by the title of the book, it is basically to help us to understand how powerful words really are.
While I was reading the book, God brought back the memory of myself when I was in high school. If you knew me then, you would know I was a little over-dramatically sad. For the stupidest reasons, too. I went through what seemed like the worst time of my life at that point. I was hurt by some people and I thought, "oh, I am hurt, I have to be sad and mourn for a long time now." And I did. I was really sad, not because I was really hurt, but because I thought that being sad was what I should do when bad things happen.
We get to choose the attitude we have towards the circumstances that life throws at us. I chose to be sad. And I regret it. Looking back, if I had chosen to be happy, hand the pain and hurt to God, and move on, I would have enjoyed my high school years so much more.
These two paragraphs from the book really helped me to see and understand the effects our words have on our spirit and soul.
"The words that come out of our mouths go into our own ears as well as other people's, and then they drop down into our soul, where they give us either joy or sadness, peace or upset, depending on the types of words we have spoken. Our words can even oppress our spirit. God desires that our spirit be light and free so it can function properly, not heavy and oppressed." (6)
"If we say a thing often enough, silently in our hearts or verbally, we will believe it whether or not it's true. And the Bible teaches us that we receive what we believe. All of God's promises are received through believing them. Actually, believe means "to receive," and receive means "to believe." Believing and receiving are like conjoined twins. The two cannot be separated. What we believe becomes our reality!" (10)
We are feeding our soul with the words we say. We are basically eating our words.
That is why we need to watch our thoughts, too. Because most of the time, we say what we think. People will be able to tell what kind of person we are by the way we speak and what we talk about. Feed your soul with pure and godly thoughts.
Of course, we all fall short at times and we find ourselves thinking about ungodly and sinful thoughts.
If we meditate on the Word of God daily, our spirit will dismiss those impure thoughts immediately because our spirit is strong and filled with the truth. It can identify what is of God and what isn't. However, if we choose to meditate on ungodly thoughts, we will find it hard to dismiss those thoughts because our spirit is not filled with God's truth.
We receive what we believe. When we believe that Jesus is Lord of all, we instantly receive salvation and the Holy Spirit in us. If we believe that God will bless us and perform miracles in our lives, we receive overflowing blessings and miracles. On the other hand, if we have the spirit of unbelief, I think we all know how it's going down! What's the opposite of receiving? Denying, losing, repelling, turning away, etc. Nothing good!
God gave us freewill. We actually get to choose what we believe, what we receive. We get to choose the better life! We get to choose Jesus! And what comes with choosing Jesus? Salvation, forgiveness, grace, unconditional love, blessings, peace, joy, and the list goes on and on. ALL GOOD THINGS.
A wholesome tongue is a tree of life: but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit. - Proverbs 15:4 (KJV)
I am sorry that my thoughts are scattered everywhere. I am not a very good writer. Hopefully I got my point across clearly.
Source
Joyce Meyer. Change Your Words Change Your Life.
Song of the day
I Will Exalt - Amanda Cook, Bethel Music
