Jackie's Journey: Words and Wounds!

“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 friend's 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  

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. 

Jackie's Journey: Busybodies...!

Chapter 3 of James speaks directly to those who aspire to teach.  Mothers are teachers whether they aspire to be or not!  Our children look to us for direction, protection and instruction in what is right and wrong in life.  They read our actions, words, and attitudes…continually.  They listen to our hearts and they read our spirits! 

“When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal.  Or take ships as an example.  Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants it to go.

Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts.   Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark.  The tongue is a small part of the body but makes great spark.  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 his life on fire and is itself set on fire by hell.

All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, but no man can tame the tongue!” James 3: 3-7

SeaWorld can control Shamu, a massive creature,

 but we struggle to control our own diminutive tongue!!

Scripture says “the tongue is a restless evil, full of deadly poison!” 

With the tongue we praise God, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness.  Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing.  This should not be!

Do you know what I am talking about? 

Do you know what a gossip is?

How about a whisperer or slanderer?

 Can you define a busybody…?

I Peter 4:15 talks about a busybody who digs up evil reports and then spreads them through gossip, slander or whispering.   

“Let none of you suffer as a murderer

or as a thief

or as an evil doer

or as a busybody in other men’s matters.” 

According to this verse evil reporting is as wicked as murder or stealing!

We enjoy listening to evil reports because they exalt us!  All evil reports involve false information or are a distortion of facts.  They are usually given with wrong motives and cause the hearer to form inaccurate conclusions.  One of the major causes of conflict among us is our wrong response to an evil report.  We, then, attempt to resolve the conflict with unscriptural solutions.

The Whisperer secretly or privately passes on evil reports to others.

“All my enemies whisper together against me. They imagine the worst for me…”  Psa. 41:7

Among Christians, a common example of a whisperer is in the area of prayer requests. 

If the request comes with the disclaimer, “Please don’t share this with anyone, but… we need to pray about this….!”

Our response should be, “Have you asked this person if you can share this request with me?  Let’s go pray with this person together.”

In Panama at our missionary school, we sang a song called Gossip.  It went like this:

“Gossip is sharing pertinent information with someone with anyone who’s not involved with the problem or with the solution.”  The Gossiper loves to magnify and sensationalize rumors and partial information and pass it on quickly. 

Know anybody like this?

The Slanderer seeks to destroy another’s credibility or reputation with damaging facts, distortions of facts and evil suspicions.  In Numbers 14:36 the consequence for evil reporting exposes what God thinks about evil reports!

“So the men Moses sent to explore the land, who returned and made the whole community grumble against him by spreading a bad report about it…

these men responsible for spreading the bad report about the land were struck down and died of a plague before the Lord”!

Ask yourself these 5 questions the next time someone approaches you with information regarding a third party:

1. What is your reason for telling me this?
2. Where did you get your information?
3. Have you spoken to those directly involved?
4. Have you personally checked out all the facts?
5. Can I quote you if I check this out?

Spirituality is not measured by how well we expose another person for whatever reason, but by how effectively we scripturally seek to see that person restored and made successful.

How do your husband and your children perceive the amount

of control you have over your tongue?

How important do you see your power of influence

in the lives of your children?

~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.