Posts
This got me thinking (uh-oh) about the huge potential I have to affect people with my words. Do I use them to build up and bless…or do I use them to tear down and hurt? A little of both I guess. I have three kids…a husband…I talk to people all day long, every day at work.
You know the saying….if you don’t have something nice to say….clap the trap. The Bible even addresses the potential of the tongue to wield life…or to wield death. The power of life and death is in the tongue. Whoa….that really puts the snide remark or the snippy response into perspective.
And we don’t just talk to others….we talk to ourselves too!! Eckhart would tell us that this is the consequence of living in a world of duality….egoic mind and the spirit nature having a chat. He often says that his defining moment of awakening occurred when, racked with angst and misery, he declared, "I can't live with myself anymore." And it suddenly dawned on him that there were two of him!!! Form and formless. But if we are going to be talking to ourselves anyway…it seems to make the most sense to affirm rather than degrade. Eckhart also says that if we had to live with someone who talked to us the way we talk to ourselves, we would have long ago, hit the road.
In the book I mentioned yesterday, Sticks and Stones, the author says:
As middle age begins to throw its arms around us, our internal voice tells us to slow down and give up on our dreams. The voice inside our head that once pushed us to try to change the world now screams, "You can't do that now; you are simply too old." The voice usually becomes louder as we hit our senior years. Rather than think with the old, "I think I can" mentality, we tend to say "I wish I could" or even worse, "There's no way"
Even worse….I wish I would have or I should have. The shoulda’, woulda’, coulda’s. They’ll wear you down every time!!!
He talks about Nola Ochs, a 2007 graduate of Fort Hays State University. Lots of 2007 graduates...but she was the only one who was 97 years old!!
Each day she got up believing she could handle whatever life threw at her. Nola had a can do attitude. Many of us (most of us) have a "can't do attitude"
And in her book, Believing God Day By Day by Day Beth Moore she quotes Matthew 12:37
For by your words you will be acquitted and by your words you will be condemned.
And then goes on to say…..
Words wield power. Our words are not omnipotent but they are still potent. We can tear down with our words or build up with our words. We can speak living words or we can speak killing words. We can encourage or we can discourage. The question is not whether our words affect; the question is how.
That is the question du jour….how will our words affect those around us? How will they affect us. Will they smite or will they edify?
3 comments:
Regarding the way we speak to ourselves, I am amazed at the power that springs forth when, in a situation where I am feeling low or depressed, I speak words of comfort and encouragement and perspective-reminding to myself. It's like there is a part of myself that just springs up at those words. Truly amazing.
I can go for a day without speaking a word to anybody and still manage to put my foot in it, haha :)
I've been reading that thoughts are a form of energy..and that negative thoughts attract negativity. I don't buy into that whole "The Secret" stuff..but I think there is something to it. When I went to counseling for a bit last spring, when my world was being rocked to and fro...she told me to keep track of the negative things I say to myself. Wow. As Eckhart points out, if we lived with someone who talked to us the way we talk to (and treat) ourselves...we would be long gone...out of there...see ya' later Pal. It's hard to get out of those self defeating thought patterns.
That makes sense.
I've been talking today about how it is that we never seem to get taught that we need to learn to love ourselves. The church often seems to teach that we love ourselves too much, and that's the prblem. But like I was saying today, it seems to me there are two types of love, and the first type of love we have for ourselves is the egoic type leading to self-preservation. The second type of love leads to us not talking to ourselves like we are giant bags of poo. They seem very opposite types to me.
Post a Comment