Good afternoon, or a good day to you wherever you are in the world. Hope you’re doing well!

So, judging by the title, you’re either thinking… what? Or, why is she sounding like my mother or grandmother, telling me to watch my mouth? Well..

Proverbs 18:21 “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit”. Today I’m gonna be talking about the power of the tongue, the power in what you say

There is a concept in Psychology and Sociology called the Self-fulfilling prophecy. This is the idea that we become what we/or others say about ourselves. For example, before a test telling a girl “Girls are worse at maths than boys”, this may make them underperform by virtue of being told ‘girls are worse than boys in maths’ (Read more about the self fulfilling prophecy here: https://positivepsychology.com/self-fulfilling-prophecy/).

Speaking negative about yourself or other people “I’ll never amount to much” “I’m no use, I’m no good” etc., can have a negative impact on how you behave. Or if you were to tell the same thing to other people, it could impact their lives forever, because if they have been repeatedly told that they won’t amount to much, they internalise that. So this is why I want to share today about how powerful our tongue is. It’s not the biggest muscle in our body, but it can be like a spark, which sets fire and can burn down an entire forest. With what you say you can cause death, just because of your tongue. It might not be a physical death, but you could kill someone’s aspirations or dreams, or even their hope, just because you’ve spoken so badly about something they’ve shared.

On the other hand, however, there’s also the ability to speak life into something, you can encourage people, you can encourage yourself, you can be good to people by speaking words of positivity, “I can do this!” “You are going to make this”.

You know, it sounds so simple, but we don’t realise how much of an impact words can have. The same mouth that you use to encourage someone, is the same that you can use to curse someone, so it’s up to us how we speak.

Every single day you have a choice. Am I going to speak positive about myself, about others? Or am I going to be negative?

The way you speak to yourself is so important. I had this issue, I’ll be very honest. When it comes to speaking to others, I could be very positive, and I would speak encouragement, but when it came to myself I couldn’t find the words to say something positive about myself, or to myself. I would struggle if someone came and asked me “What are your strengths?”, because I didn’t see myself in a positive light or didn’t have much good to say about myself. However, I had to learn, if someone else was speaking to my friend the way I spoke to OR about myself “No use at anything, probably won’t do well, just rubbish”, I wouldn’t accept that! So why should I speak about myself.

Therefore it’s so important to learn that we can’t take words back. So think carefully. Is what I’m about to say gonna build this person up, encourage them, help them? Or am I just spouting negativity? Is what I’m gonna say to myself something I would be happy saying to others? Am I being kind with my words.

It’s a saying we teach to young children “Be nice, say your please and thank you’s, if you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say it at all”. And I think it’s a very simple principle that we forget. Just to be positive and intentional with being kind, in the way we speak, in what we speak to others.

Even to children, we have to be careful what words we speak to them, because it can have a long-lasting impact. If a child is constantly hearing that they’re bad, or that they’re not a good child, or even hearing the way that adults speak to and about adults, they can begin to follow and copy that.

Death and life are in the power of the tongue. Remember that.

Today, are you going to speak death or life into your situation, into your education, your relationships, your career, your life or into the lives of others?

The choice is ours.

~ peace, joy & love

TK x