The Power of Your Words

Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about words. Words have a lot of power. In a split second, words have the power to change a person’s mood, day, or even their life either positively or negatively. Proverbs 18:21 says, The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.
Stanford University recently did a study about the words spoken into the lives of children. On average, in households where parents are professionals and highly educated, 80% of the words spoken by parents to children are positive. Only 20% are negative. Children’s ears are filled with statements about how smart, fast, beautiful, or clever they are.
In the average middle class family, where parents have some form of college education, a child will hear about 50/50 of positive to negative statements. However, in the average lower class family, where there is little education beyond high school, a child will hear negative statements nearly 80% of the time. Only 20% of the things people say around them will be positive. These children’s ears are filled with negativity: you are dumb. You are slow. You are ugly. You are unwanted. You are not enough.
I found this absolutely heartbreaking. This very concept flies in the face of the concept of the tremendous value that God sees in every single one of us. Children who are constantly bombarded with lies that they have no value often begin to believe them. I am reminded of a scene from The Help where Abileen Clark repeats to the child whom she has been hired to care for, “You is kind. You is smart. You is important.” While her grammar is lacking, Abilene realized the value of speaking truth into this child’s life. My challenge to you today is to break the statistic. Speak truth and positivity into the life of your children and the children who you come in contact with.