If I understand it correctly, the following is a passage that appeared in Robert Fulghum’s 1988 book All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. Also Amir Khan the Indian Actor and director in his movie “Taare Zameen Par” referred to this legend of yelling at trees while describing the impact of yelling at children.

“In the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific, some villagers practice a unique form of logging. If a tree is too large to be chopped down, the natives cut it down by yelling at it. Woodsmen with special “powers” (they believe) creep up on the tree just at dawn and scream suddenly at it at the top of their lungs (screaming negative words and basically, cursing the tree). 

“They continue this for 30 days. At the end of the 30 days, the tree will have died and falls over. The theory is that the yelling kills the spirit of the tree. According to the villagers, it always works. 

“As for people, the Solomon Islanders may have a point. Yelling at living things does tend to kill the spirit in them. Sticks and stones may break our bones, but words will break our hearts.”

And as Christians, we should NOT be surprised.

In the Bible, you have the account of the time Jesus simply spoke to a fig tree and commanded it to die. One account states that Jesus and His disciples came upon the tree the very next day and it had withered up from the roots and died. The very next day.

What if everything you spoke came to pass the very next day? Words spoken such as “This flu is just killing me” or “With this recession, I’ll probably be the first one laid off”? 

Then there’s the fact that we yell at our mates, children, dogs and cats; we yell at the telephone, the lawn, the television, the newspaper, and our cars; at traffic, bills, banks, government, and machines of all sorts. Yelling bad things at living things tends to kill the spirit in it. Remember the experiments with talking to plants?

Yelling bad things at inanimate objects long enough creates the atmosphere for destruction. Why? Because you are not speaking faith words when you call your car a piece of junk. You will receive whatever you are speaking over your vehicle because it is a biblical law. Ask me how I know this!

In Deuteronomy 30:19, God states that He has set before us life and death, and blessing and cursing and tells us to CHOOSE LIFE (that both you and your descendants may live). And He also tells us how to choose life in Proverbs 18:21 – The tongue has the power of life and death. 

There are many scriptures that emphasize the importance of our words. What are you killing or cursing in your life? What are you giving life and blessing to? It is vital we learn this in the times we are living in!

SPEAK LIFE.