I can’t
even count how many times over the last month that Andrew has said to me,
“Tricia you’re not dying- quit speaking that over yourself” after I’ve said I
was “dying laughing” or “dying” during a run. Okay. Is it really that big of
the deal?
One of
the biggest lessons I’ve learned on the race has to do with speaking life.
Especially in the last several weeks I have been so aware of words and the
impact that they have. The Bible talks over and over about blessings and
curses… about the power that words have. Words like “death” or “hate” carry so
much weight. At first when Andrew said something about saying the words “dying”
or “hate” I couldn’t believe he was being serious, and then I realized the words
we speak over ourselves are serious. There is something to speaking health and
life over ourselves and others- something to speaking things into existence. We
have the ability to declare things and I think what we say has more of an
impact than we think. We can call down blessings and curses easily, so I’ve
started being a lot more intentional with what I’m saying. Rather than
mentioning how sick or tired I feel, I declare health and energy over myself.
Rather than being critical or complaining, I’ve been trying to be intentional
about building up or speaking ridiculous or fun things to life. It’s paid off
pretty well. Basic? Yah, it is. Essential? Definitely.
Me, Jared (one of our amazing team leaders) and Andrew
I know
that the idea of speaking life is important to both genders, but seeing as I’m
a female, I’ve been thinking a lot more about how it pertains to women and the
affect our words have on those around us. One of my goals for the last three
months of the race was to learn how to build up a man. Let’s be honest, I can
be a feminist on some points and I can sometimes be a butthead when it comes to
building up men in my life. Co-leading with Andrew and leading men on my squad
has taught me so much about the “power” or influence we have on men. One thing
Andrew said to me once has stuck with me for a long time. He told me that a
woman has power to make a man want to fight a lion. It sounds a little silly or
maybe extreme, but it’s not. As I was reading the other day, I was led to
Proverbs 14:1 which says, “The wise woman builds her house, but the foolish
tears it down with her own hands.” That spoke to me so much. I wondered why it
just pointed out women when most of Proverbs uses the masculine form. Maybe I’m
interpreting wrong, but I believe that speaking life plays a big part of it. If
we are wise, we will build up our house by speaking life into our husbands,
children, etc. If we are foolish, we can easily tear down our house. So that
leaves us with a big responsibility. We have the opportunity and privilege to
use our words to build up, encourage, and make those around us
stronger…especially the men in our life.
Not speaking life…but taking an awkward photo with Taylor 🙂
