There’s an old English children’s nursery rhyme that says, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never break me.” Pretty much everyone has heard this rhyme and quoted it constantly.

But you know what? That rhyme is a huge lie. And through that lie, the enemy has easily fulfilled his calling – stealing, killing & destroying*. He has stolen a lot from us, not only as children but as adults.

Words. Just how important are they? Just how much do they affect your life and where you are right now?

I still remember the day God began dealing with me about the words I was speaking. It was in the late 70’s. At that time it was about sneezing then “confessing”, “I must be catching a cold.”

Then in the mid-80’s He pointed out to me that where I was was a direct result of words I’d been speaking. I was just beginning a L-O-N-G journey about learning how important every single word is that I speak.

By the mid-1980’s, He was able to point out the trouble I had with my wonderful sports car was my own fault. He pointed out that I would say (about my old huge 4-door monster car), “I wish I had a sports car. I wouldn’t even care if it had problems as long as I didn’t have to drive this huge lead-sled car.”

You guessed it. I got a neat 1979 Camaro, T-tops, car. And it wasn’t too long (about a year) before I began having the strangest problems with that car – problems that didn’t even make sense.

I had taken it in for a minor issue and when I got that car back from a trusted mechanic – oh my gosh. On the way back to the office, it made so much noise, I pulled over. The guy who’d driven me to pick the car up popped the hood and freaked out. Someone had forgotten to put all the bolts back on the fan and it was almost off.

Not just that but once we were back on the road, the vehicle wobbled so much, I pulled over again. Yep, guess what? There was ONE bolt on one of the tires. The rest were missing.

Then I began having smoking problems – i.e., black smoke coming out of the tail pipe – NOT a problem I had when I took the car into the shop.

Oh yeah, I can’t tell you how I felt when God pointed out my former words to me. This car was running on a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Our words – those we speak constantly, those we believe – will come back to haunt us. People say, “Well, I didn’t mean it and God knows what I meant.” Yeah, so did the devil. And God knows you are being disobedient.

Steven Furtick, Sr. Pastor, Elevation Church in North Carolina, is quoted** as saying, “After any phrase… practice saying this statement: ‘And that’s just the way I want it.’”

See how this makes you feel:

“I can’t lose weight no matter what I try. And that’s just the way I want it.”

“I could never make that much money. And that’s just the way I want it.”

“I will always be broke, drive a crud car and live in a dumpy apartment. And that’s just the way I want it.”

“My kids will never amount to much. And that’s just the way I want it.”

“I always get the flu and catch colds. And that’s just the way I want it.”

Proverbs 18:21 says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.”

(MSG)  Words kill, words give life; they’re either poison or fruit–you choose.

(NLT)  The tongue can bring death or life; those who love to talk will reap the consequences.

There are other references to the words we speak, but to me this one says it all. In your mouth is life and death – life and death to your dreams, your future, your relationships, your finances, your employment, your LIFE.

If something is not the way you want it, then don’t speak it. Find out what God says about it then speak what He says.

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*John 10:10a

**Savelle-Foy, Terri. Declutter Your Way to Success, Copyright © 2017

Images taken from Google Images; representative of my former vehicles only.