Words are valuable. Words are really valuable. They can paint perfect stories in your head, accounting for every single aspect you need to make a detailed scene. They can push you to nostalgia, to anxiety, to fear, to bravery, to love, to anguish. Over time, they can build walls, trust, or relationships, or they can break them all in a matter of seconds. They're valuable. And today, all we do is spend a lot of time either wasting them or not saying the ones that need to be said.
Words are literally everywhere -- in books, on TV, in our heads. They make up songs, they make up scripts, and they make up instructions. They make up the most famous speeches that have been spoken by the most revered men across the world. It's a landmark in our lives when we speak them, and we hear politicians repeat the same ones over and over.
Somewhere along the way, we forgot the importance of words. We've forgotten the detrimental effect they have on others, but more importantly, we've forgotten the empowering effect they can have on others. We're quick to open our mouths when it'll make us feel better and when it'll make others feel worse. We're quick to open our mouths when it'll make us look good. And we're the quickest to open our mouths when it'll get us somewhere, when it'll help us reach our own goals.
Sadly, we're slowest to open our mouths when it's most important. We're slowest to open our mouths when we want to give a stranger a compliment. We're slowest to open our mouths when we want to tell the "weird kid" that they're really special and really valuable. We're slowest to open our mouths when we have a window to shower encouragement and affirmation onto someone. We're slowest to open our mouths when we're the outlier. And worst of all, we're slowest to open our mouths when we want to shout, "I love you!"
I love to write. I love piecing words together to mean something more significant, to make someone feel a certain way or push them to do something they wouldn't typically do. But with the way words are used today, the way they're used to further one's own advantages or toss around lightly some serious controversies and issues, it's hard for them to have an impact anymore. We constantly use them to jokingly discuss issues that need to be seriously talked about. Politicians use them to cover up mistakes they've made -- or to avoid any serious talk at all. Rarely are words used anymore for their ultimate purpose, their best purpose: to bring about positive change, to uplift, to empower, to push people to moments of unwavering bravery and boldness. Instead, we spend them on patronizing, judging, and discouraging. Instead, we spend them on things we wish we could take back.
If we want to use words to their full potential, we've got to start watching what we say. We've got to start keeping our mouths shut when we're speaking in our own favor. We've got to keep our mouths shut when we're speaking out of anger or spite. We've got to stop wasting our words on things that have far less potential for our society than the alternative.
We've got to start speaking up in boldness. We've got to start speaking up when we have genuine compliments, whether it's to a stranger or a friend. We've got to start speaking up to provide affirmation and encouragement to the ones closest to us or to the ones who may need it most. We've got to start speaking up for those who are to afraid to. We've got to start speaking up when someone means something to us.
Words have value they're aching to regain and use to change the way we think, the way we act, and the way we live. They have potential. We've got to remember the value our words have. We have to start using them wisely and boldly again.
Ephesians 4:29: "Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear."
