–Proverbs 18:21
I don’t really know when words first became important to me, when it clicked that there might actually be meaning behind what people were saying. What I do know though, is that realization changed the way I lived my life. It changed the way I viewed those around me and the expectations I had of them. To me, what you said now meant something and I expected you to live up to it. This was an especially important concept to me in my last year of college after having been hurt in the past and myself not having always lived up to my word. I didn’t want to be lied to and I wanted to know who my real friends were at all times. As I was trying to become a person of my word and leave behind some of the lies I began believing along the way, I started to realize just how much I valued my friends and the words they spoke-words of truth, words of life.
Coming on the Race that has not changed. From the words of life first spoken over me as I explained to my team at Training Camp that I had just been freed from depression to the words spoken over me on my birthday just last week, I don’t dismiss the words I receive. It is because of my extreme value for and appreciation of words that I look for opportunities to encourage others. I’m by no means perfect and am constantly missing opportunities, especially among my own team, but there’s nothing that brings me greater joy than encouraging a fellow brother or sister, than reminding them who they are in Christ.
There are far too many people walking around out there discouraged and disconnected from those around them because nobody took the time from his or her day to speak life. We live in a world where it’s more common to hear sarcasm than life or encouragement. That is not okay! While it is true that our fulfillment and recognition needs to come from God and God alone, He created us as relational beings for a reason. We are meant to act in each other’s lives, to encourage one another, to recognize that the words we speak have power and can bring life.
I remember one time driving in my car in our subdivision and having the thought, “How can I brighten someone’s day today?” I racked my brain for ideas of how I could bless people for no reason other than being alive. I decided to go to the store and get flowers and proceeded to drive to my friend’s house, knowing she wasn’t home. The flowers weren’t for her; they were for her mother. I hadn’t seen or talked to my friend, or her mother for that matter, in quite some time but sitting with her that day and participating in this little “deliberate act of kindness” brought such joy to my heart and to hers as well.
In this instance, it was more than just words, but my point is-we’re meant to act in each other’s lives, to encourage one another. In whatever it is you do, whether it be a deliberate act of kindness or speaking life into someone, you are called to be a vessel of encouragement, a beacon of hope, to this world. Don’t leave it to someone else.
So here’s my challenge to you: start looking for opportunities to encourage others and start speaking life into those around you. May you be one of those people who speaks more life than sarcasm. May the words from your lips be ones of edification and praise and may you always be a beacon of hope and truth in a world trying to smother us with lies. Start practicing deliberate acts of kindness, start writing notes of encouragement, start speaking life.
