Jackie's Journey "WATCH OUT!"

In 2008, Angela Ramsey, a sweet friend, sent me these thoughts.  “We so easily forget the control our thoughts have over our lives, and the impact our words have on others.  By simply changing our thought process, our lives will become better and our words can positively influence the lives of others.

 As believers, some of us tend to have the idea that God should control our thoughts while we are on auto pilot.  Our free will tells us otherwise.  We should strive to be like Him and not allow our flesh to destroy us with the sharpest weapon we own......our tongue!”

 “Life and death are in the power of the tongue.” Proverbs 18: 21  Our words have the power to create conditions in our lives. In Panama when I was verbalizing my fears, my husband gave me a warning in a verse that spoke volumes to me because of all the unknowns surrounding me.  It is taken from the book of Job (3: 25).  Job said, “What I always feared has happened to me.  What I dreaded has come true.”

 What do you dread?

“Your words, which spring from your thoughts, have power to create conditions in your life.  
If you keep saying you can't stand your job , you might lose your job. 
If you keep saying you can't stand your body , your body can become sick. 
If you keep saying you can't stand your car , your car could be stolen or just stop operating. 
If you keep saying you're broke , guess what? You'll always be broke. 
If you keep saying you can't trust a man or trust a woman , you will always find someone in your life to hurt and betray you. 
If you keep saying you can't find a job , you will remain unemployed. 
If you keep saying you can't find someone to love you or believe in you , your very thought will attract more experiences to confirm your beliefs. 
If you keep talking about a divorce or break up in a relationship , then you might end up with it. 

Convert your thoughts and conversations into God-filled, power packed action of trust, faith , hope , and unconditional love. Stand back and wait for  your circumstances and situationsto change when you change the way you think and speak.”

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 .

 Have a great week!

~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 mentoring 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 "Eating Crow!"

Eating Crow is never fun!  If we never opened our mouth or spoke, we would not have to eat our words.  Words have the power of life or death. Pro. 18: 21 They can bless or curse.  They can encourage or bring despair.  

 William Boetcker was a Presbyterian minister in the early 20th century.  He once spoke on the seven “Mischievous Misses” of the tongue.  They were misinformation, misquotation, misrepresentation, misinterpretation, misconstruction, misconception and misunderstanding. I think he pretty well covered for all of us the areas responsible for our tongue troubles!  

 James, the half-brother of Jesus in the New Testament called the tongue a “fire, a world of iniquity”.  He compares it to the bit of a horse and a rudder of a ship. Both of these control and influence direction. We are to keep a tight rein on our tongue. Bridled speech manifests maturity.  Impulsive speech manifests the opposite. We all stumble in our speech at times.  We may say something unintended or maybe we meant to say it, but it created trouble and we want to take it back.

 Just like the bit and rudder control the horse and ship, our speech needs to be under control.  “How can you, being evil, speak good things. For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.  A good man (woman) out of the good treasure of his(her) heart brings forth good things, and an evil man(woman) out of the evil treasures brings forth evil things.  But I say to you that for every IDLE word we speak, we will give account of it in the day of judgement.  For by our words we will be justified and by our words we will be condemned.” Jas. 3:34-37

 The point is we cannot “just share what is on our heart, as long as, what we say is what we really believe.”  “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked”. Jer. 17: 9 Our intent should be to speak as we are led by a gracious God who has our best interest at heart and has the success of the person we are attempting to help in focus. Advice is cheap, but if not regulated and controlled by His Spirit, we can be assured of having to “eat crow”. We are admonished to ‘let no corrupt word proceed out of our mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it might impart grace to the hearer. Eph. 4: 29  

 We can control Shamu, the whale at Sea World, but fail to take control of our own tongue!

We can either nurture blessing with our tongue 

or cause damage that cannot be undone.

 Which will it be this week?

~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 mentoring 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 "Words Kill!"

”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.