”Language is the dress of thought”. Samuel Johnson I have two very precious friends who live in Tucson, Arizona. I don’t get to see them as often as I would like but they are the eternal connection we all hope that we are fortunate enough to find just once in our lifetime of relationships. While on furlough from the mission field these girls were eager to encouragingly nurse me back to health while I was crumpled on their living room sofa and they had just the right words that would lift my spirit and keep me going. Most of all, they offered total and complete acceptance accompanied with a joy of just sensing refuge in their presence. I recently found an encouraging note they sent me shortly after the first of our books in The Princess Parable Series was released. This is the note…
“I loaned your books to a friend, Jackie. Her granddaughters are named Daity and Caity Belle.
This was my friends comment on them:
“Thanks for the loan on the books – they are GREAT! We had to reenact the Princess Birthday one – we baked a cake and invited the dolls – dressed up – it was quite a production. Daity really liked it and Caity Belle liked the one about the dog – now when they dress up they have to be those Princesses. So I would say they are a hit! I love that there is a great theme and then the stories at the end of the book – great illustrations and inspiring and encouraging.’
Thought you would like to hear another review.
Keep up the Lord’s work on your writing. Love, Jane”
There are many ways we express ourselves, but, as women, we are exceptionally prone to WORDS…all kinds of words… lots of words…soothing words…volatile words…we love words…
“The power of life and death are in the tongue.” Proverbs 18:21
WORDS HAVE POWER!
Do you speak LIFE with your tongue… or DEATH?
“Speech is the index of the mind”. We have a nanosecond before every choice we make each time we entertain a thought…should I say this or should I not??? Often we disregard the warning at that point of decision and blurt out exactly what should have been kept in the “box of better timing” or not at all!
For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks…” Lu. 6:45
and too many meaningless words mark you as a fool! Ecc. 5:3
In Proverbs 15 there are 21 references to words in only 33 verses!!! There are cutting words, crude words, slanderous words, piercing words, biting words, poisonous words, burning words envious words, healing words, deceitful words, wise words, mocking words, cheerful words, timely words, prayerful words and….you fill in the blank!
Being a person of many words, I used to think if you isolate me in a remote jungle village with people who speak a different language then the tongue would be much less of a problem…How much damage could I do…I couldn’t speak the Kuna language…?
How many times have you been “ensnared by the words of your mouth”?
Proverbs 6:2
“IF ANYONE CONSIDERS HIMSELF RELIGIOUS AND YET DOES NOT KEEP A TIGHT REIN ON HIS TONGUE, HE DECEIVES HIMSELF AND HIS RELIGION IS WORTHLESS”! Jas. 1: 26
I am reminded of the old adage:
Watch your Thoughts, they become words.
Watch your Words, they become actions.
Watch your Actions, they become habits.
Watch your Habits, they become character.
Watch your Character, for it becomes your Destiny.
Watch how your circumstances change when you change the way you speak!
“The power of LIFE and DEATH are in the tongue”!
Proverbs 18:21
~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America. Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California. My passion is discipling and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights.
