Nursery rhymes

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me. Oh be careful little mouth what you say. If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all.

Little riddles and rhymes about the words we say find their way into children's books, and songs. We remember the phrases our parents would hammer into us from as early as we can remember. Why all this mess? Why do we engrain such morals into toddlers?

Without realizing it, the world has hit it good. Words are powerful.

I've been noticing something lately. I've been noticing how vibrantly different people are when they speak words of Life into others, as opposed to those who do not. Consider how Jesus spoke. He spoke words of Life into the people who listened to Him. He spoke words of no condemnation, but words of peace, words of love, and words of joy. He spoke Life. His Spirit was that of Life. Life ruled Him. And He therefore, exuded Life into everything He did.

It makes sense if you think about it. In some ways it's easy to discern how genuine a person is by the way they speak. By the essence of their words. There is undeniable Life in words that come from a mouth that speaks words from a heart that is overwhelmed in Christ.

There was a time in my life I struggled with confidence in certain areas. A good friend of mine called me out on it. The words spoken were good words. They were correct. They hit the nail on the head. But they were not words of Life. Instead of feeling set free and safe in the recognition, I felt paralyzed, tormented. I felt like a child playing hide and seek, and getting caught before he found his hiding place. Ready or not, here I come!

The words spoken to me were words that were true in a sense. But they did not speak Life into me. They came out of a spirit of frustration, and anger. Not peace. Not love. Not Life.

I recognized the difference here when someone else some time later spoke the same thing over me. The words were very similarly spoken. However, there was something very different that occurred in my heart when the words landed in my ears. Instead of feeling caught red handed, I felt released. Freed. Safe. Funny, isn't it?

It became clear to me that words of Life are not just words that are true. They are words spoken from a heart that is pure, and steadfast in the Lord. They are words spoken and thought from a mouth and mind that is overflowing with the Spirit of God. We receive Him more and more into our selves when we constantly seek after Him. We hold more and more of Him when we allow Him to search us and know us, and scrape out the things that don't need to be there. Our intensions can be great. They can be fantastic! But it doesn't mean our words will always be words of Life. They only can be if we're already filled with the Life that comes from Jesus Christ. And it works the other way around too. We don't even intend to minister Life to people sometimes... but we still do.

When God created mankind, He breathed into us the Breath of Life. When Jesus walked the earth, He told us He is the Way the Truth and the Life. How powerful it is that when we are filled with His Life, we exude Life (HIM) into everything we do, everything we say, and everything we think! How powerful it is to guard even our thoughts! It's beyond me that even our thoughts exude something. And it's either Life, or it's not.

So when we speak, let's speak words of Life, allowing the Holy Spirit to examine our hearts, and our intensions before we speak. When we think, let's think thoughts of Life, so that our spirits and our hearts minister peace constantly to everyone around us. When we speak, let's not catch anyone red handed. Let's not even let anyone play hide and seek. No one should have to hide from Life. Let's leave the hiding to the Enemy, and the seeking to our hearts after God's. And let's make a nursery rhyme outa that one!