Did you know that the average amount of words that a human says in a day is roughly 16,000? 16,000 words. Although I’m convinced that my extroverted personality increases my amount by about 5,000, 16,000 is still a lot of words. Something that the Lord has recently been walking me through is the impact that those words have on the people around me. I have been convicted the last couple of weeks with how my words bring life… and they can bring death. By my choice of words, I am ultimately making the choice to bring life to someone by building them up, or choosing to bring them death by tearing them down. Hearing one of my squad leaders say this forced me to ask myself the question, “Kat, can you confidently say that you leave every conversation you have, having built that person up with life-bringing words?” No. No, I cannot. But I want to.
Living with 12 other people (all women) is extremely difficult. We eat together, do ministry together, sleep 5ft away from each other… there’s not a whole lot of privacy. Just when I think that I can get some alone time while I’m in the shower, someone knocks and asks if they can use the bathroom. I’m not complaining, close community definitely has its perks, but I’m also not denying it’s challenges. That being said, living so closely with people can reveal your messiness. At home if I was upset with someone or annoyed, I could just leave and not talk to them for a couple of days. But not on the world race! There’s no escaping conflict. So, that means when I’m annoyed, it’s going to show. When I’m frustrated, it’s going to show. The important part is…how I let it show. I can choose to show anger or hurt through speaking out ugliness and words with poison, or I can pursue holiness and speak out with love and compassion.
Recently, I started a podcast series on the book of James and this particular one was covering chapter 3 which is Taming the Tongue. The pastor said something along the lines of,
“The tongue is not only the best indicator of true spirituality, but it is also one of the most reliable. If the tongue is not controlled by God, it is a sure indicator that the heart is not either.”
…………………. Oh, man. Read that last sentence again.
Our tongues are a direct reflection of what is in our hearts. Ouch. How can something be so elementary, but so hard to grasp? This has been by far one of the hardest things I’ve had to learn to grow in on the race. Consistently speaking with a heart posture of love for people is a true discipline. But, because of the fruit that it brings, it’s not burdensome. Difficult? Yes! Do I have to take it a day at a time? Yep!! Is it a burden? Nope! Obedience to God should never feel like a burden to true believers.
Psalm 141:3 says, “Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door to my lips!”
That verse has been my prayer for the last week and will continue to be. God has called us to speak love and life, but we can only do this when He is the one abiding in us. The enemy knows that our words have power and he does what he can to twist them into evil. Our words have so much weight and they can bring kingdom and Satan knows this and he’s threatened by it. Something I’m learning as well is the power that women specifically hold in their words. Women have influence and are a major role to the kingdom. This is why Satan is SO intentional about attacking women. Just look at Eve. The enemy knew the influence that she carried and took advantage. And the story is still the same. He targets women, especially through their words, to bring death and evil because women are INCREDIBLE AND HAVE SO MUCH IMPACT!!!! So, women, let that encourage you. You have authority given to you by the King to bring life and love with the words that you speak out! I’m preaching to myself as well 🙂
So, this is just a taste of what the Lord is walking me through as of right now. I’m growing more than I could ever describe in a blog. Thank you so much for being patient with blog posts. As far as ministry goes, we are still working with Nueva Generacion, so we are still teaching in schools and working in a preschool as teacher assistants. Teaching morals in the schools is amazing because we get to give everything from biblical standpoints, which is an amazing opportunity to show people Jesus! School will be ending here soon, so continue to pray that we can be an example to the students that we teach and bring someone to Christ! We’ve been here for exactly 2 months, so our time here in Guatemala is coming to an end soon. Time flies on the race!!!! We move on to South Africa for a month on November 5th and then off to Lesotho!!
Continue to pray for me as I walk through this season of growth and deeper intimacy with the Lord and my team! God is working here in Antigua, Guatemala.
**Also, I am still in need of monthly supporters to help with the cost of extra food, toiletries, transportation, ect. If you feel led to give, please contact me or my parents and we can tell you the best way to do that.**
THANK YOU SO MUCH in advance for prayers and giving financially. I love you all!!!!!
