I love words. I love the unique words that I made up as a kid like Eva-lators...the combined elevator and escalator. Or my brother Mike's version of inquiring how a family member was doing, "Sut-Chu-Way-Ray," which was Coffmaneze for "What's going on?" Many of my Blog titles are made-up words I've combined and twisted to have a meaning of its own.
Comedian Kevin Hart recently published a book of encouragement for today's Covid-19 world: The Decision: Overcoming Today’s BS for Tomorrow’s Success. One of the words referenced in the book is "Surthriving." What a great word! You can be both a survivor and thrive.
Recently, I spoke with a woman who is in recovery. Circumstances for her choices have resulted in her facing new challenges. I shared that she will have to face challenges every day of her life, "If you have to go through the challenges anyway, why not learn from them while you're going through them?" I suggested that she journal all the situational challenges and her response to those challenges. Some responses will result in positive results and others will have not as successful outcomes. By journaling all of these cause-and-effect situations she will be able to recall which decisions were good (do more of these) and which decisions were not so good (do less of these). By writing down her words she will be able to read and remember the lessons learned. When we don't write them down, we are less likely to remember those difficult lessons and are apt to repeat them.
Words are powerful. They can build up and they can tear down. They can be kind and they can be cruel. They can either encourage or discourage and they can add clarity to a situation or they can further confuse it. They can make you laugh and they can bring tears of sorrow. Words can hurt feelings and they can cause harm to another. Words give life and they can kill.
So the next time you find yourself using words for either good or bad consider what the Bible says about words,
"A good man produces good deeds from a good heart.
And an evil man produces evil deeds from his hidden wickedness.
Whatever is in the heart overflows into speech."
Luke 6:45 Living Bible (TLB)