Trash Talk or Healthy Hope

Every WORD that leaves your lips, one day you will be accountable for. Do you speak with poison to bring pain or truth to produce healing? Words have power even if you don’t understand their meaning.

Take a second and pause.

Do you think before you speak? Most people do, but let me ask you a deeper question, do you pray before you let your words impact someones' life? I think back and never realized how words I spoke could impact mulitply lives, including mine. Words are a detail in life that you can never take back or forget. Whether the words left your lips to hurt someone or if the words were spoken and broke your heart, your mind repeats them like a broken record sometimes. So, let us dig deeper on the power of the tongue shall we?

So what is the definition of a tongue?

A tongue is defined in the dictionary as a fleshy muscular organ in the mouth used for licking, tasting, swallowing and articulating speech. The tongue is surrounded by bones, but the tongue is ALL MUSCLE, the strongest one in the body. I had to sit here and meditate on why the tongue could be the strongest muscle in the human body. Have you ever thought about the intensity that could be used with that simple organ? The words spoken could break or kill another vital organ, such as the heart.

Let me ask you a simple question, have you ever had a sore on your tongue? A sore on the tongue is super sensitive to talk to the point where you guard your mouth and only speak when absolutely needed. Where you are extremely cautious of what could bring you pain, like maybe eating something spicy or acidic or even a nudge of your teeth hitting the open wound. Think about how it takes awhile for an open wound on the tongue to heal and can be extremely painful during moments of life. Trust me, I have learned this struggle with not only an open wound on my tongue from biting it, but then mouth ulcers taking over the one detail I need to speak hope with. The pain kept me quiet and taught me the intensity of the words leaving my lips. I was praying for wisdom to know and understand the meaning of the words written in other people's lives. I do not want to take that lightly because God does not. His Word is Truth and sometimes is painful to hear. Also, do you know the tongue can bring life or death, and we are reminded of that simple detail in the book of Proverbs. The tongue symbolizes how words can crush a spirit or bring one to life. How can a musicle, not a bone, be so powerful to bring the body to life just because words were spoken from God, Himself. How powerful are the words that leave our lips?

I dare you to look at how the words you speak daily make a difference. Do you speak trash talk or healthy hope? Do you have to ask what the difference is? Open your eyes to the small detail. I challenge you to see how language changes once you decide to follow Jesus. Jesus cleans out our filth over time and lets our stories of our experiences be hope to others. Honestly, we all need healthy hope. Healthy hope starts small, but the time it takes to change our behavior is also the time it takes to change our language from dead to life.

Please never think your words do not matter because even the smallest compliment can make a difference, just like the first insult to pierce skin. Please pause and allow yourself to heal and remind people healing can happen, but healthy hope is needed to spark life, not destroy it. Open your eyes to see how trash talk, gossip, and idle chatter is easy, especially if you like the sound of your own voice. The real challenge is allowing God to use your words and let His words inside you come out to those who need to hear it. Don't hold yourself back from speaking words of hope, instead of words that destroy.

The next time you open your mouth, I dare you to either pray or think behind what you say because words have an impact and never forget that.