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Do You Eat Your Words?
Recently someone told of her husband who sent her an article via phone, “How to declutter a closet in nine easy steps.”
If my husband did that to me, I’d want to get rid of all the “clutter” and buy another wardrobe!
All of us remember unkind words.
Usually those words weren’t meant to hurt, but to encourage (as in the case of the husband with the tips to organize).
But as I considered that wardrobe I’d buy (and not from a thrift store), I remembered words I’ve said that weren’t so nice.
Words that required an apology.
Most of the time they flew out of my mouth without a thought in my head.
How could I have been so mean?
Words… that’s one of those love languages. We feel loved by what people say, or maybe feel unappreciated by what they don’t say.
Like apples of gold in settings of silver is a word spoken in right circumstances. Proverbs 25:11
Words at the right time can give peace, comfort, and stability…or they destroy, damage, and kill.
How do you comfort with words?
Sometimes it’s not what you say, but what you don’t say.
He who restrains his words has knowledge. Proverbs 17:27
The Bible say, “man is not corrupted by what he puts into his body, but what comes out…”
The statement “Garbage in, garbage out.” Holds true with words.
As for a rogue,…he devises wicked schemes to destroy the afflicted with slander, even though the needy one speaks what is right. Isaiah 32:7
While waiting for my thirteen-year-old to finish baseball practice, I overheard his teammates talking. All they said was cursing! I had been cheering them all season, thinking how mature they were becoming by their discipline…but their mouths showed me otherwise.
When I asked my son later, he said, that’s why he helped the coach out on the field.
Words show your heart.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight. Psalm 19:14
How do you make your words acceptable to God?
We must know His Words.
We meditate on His Words. We eat them.
How sweet are Your words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Psalm 119:103.
God’s Words are worthy to be eaten.
You can’t expect to have a full vocabulary by reading and listening to First Grade Readers. Frog and Toad are great, but you need to move beyond that.
Same is true with your devotions. You can’t live on Daily Devotionals, and grow beyond that.
To change your words, you must know God’s.
Study Him, not what everyone else says about Him.
They shall hear my words for they are pleasant. Psalm 141:6
All the utterances of my mouth are in righteousness. Proverbs 8:8
We recently helped a friend go to Teen Challenge (a one-year program that helps young men become functional after drug/alcohol abuse).
When they enter the program, they’re allowed only one book, the Bible. They designate times for devotions, chapel, and church. They structure their entire day around knowing the Bible. They saturate their minds with God’s Word.
Yes, they had chemical dependence. They had trained their minds to need drugs to help them function. But they re-program their habits and “needs” to think about God.
Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against You. Psalms 119:11
Do you treasure God’s Words?
Don’t know what to say? His Words give the answer.
To make you know the certainty of the words of truth. That you may correctly answer him who sent you. Proverbs 22:21
What we think, we become.
A man doesn’t suddenly become a “dirty old man.” His mind was there his entire life, but now he’s uninhibited to share it with others.
A woman doesn’t suddenly become a crabby old lady. She was never thankful throughout her life and now it shows.
Time will tell.
Do you want to reflect peace? Show grace? Give comfort?
His words are true. Pure. Right.
Your word is very pure, there Your servant loves it. Psalm 119:140
How strong are your words?
God created the world by His very Word.
His Words have strength and power.
For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. Hebrews 4:12-13
God tells it like it is. He doesn’t love you by telling lies.
Dividing joints and marrow is painful. Being laid bare before God’s eyes makes you vulnerable.
Sometimes God requires you to expose yourself for others to heal, for others to gain strength, for others to know Him. Those are hard words.
“Is not My word like fire?” declares the Lord, “and like a hammer which shatters a rock?” Jeremiah 23:29
Words gives meaning.
Everything He says will come to pass.
Yet He also is wise and will bring disaster and does not retract His words. Isaiah 31:2
They are eternal. They don’t change.
The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. Isaiah 40:8
Our words can bring comfort, show grace, bring strength. Not because they’re our words, but because we share God’s Words.
And they don’t require an apology, even though they may cut, and pierce.
But I only know them by eating them…savoring them…knowing them.
And if you extract the precious from the worthless, you will become my spokesman, says the Lord. Jeremiah 15:19 b.
What you eat, shows by what you say.
Do you speak His Words?
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I write about what matters...to you---
women, wives and moms---
about your family, faith and future.
I write about what's hard, what helps and what heals.
I show you how it's done. And not done.
I hold your hand as you find what matters to the Savior.
And let go of those things that mattered to you, but not to Him.
I write about what matters...to Him.
Sonya Contreras
Faith
Find more articles about faith here:
Dear Faithful and Loyal Readers
Life Falling Apart? Try Gratitude
A Few Words about Marriage
When Suffering Gets Personal
What an Amazing God We Serve
Response to Healthy Gaming
How Miserable Are You? Are You Happy?
The Need for Meaning Even in Pain
Reminders of What's Important
God's Unmeasurable Love
A Quarter of a Century Spent for Our Country
What Were You Thinking?
Who Are You Watching?
Boundaries for a Better Life
God's Boundaries
Memories of a Hero Mom
The Ripple Effect
How Do We Think Like Jesus
Litany of a Waiting Woman
Ever Cook a Frog?
New Year's Reminders
They Galled Her Gammy
When God Speaks
A Russian Christmas Story
Be Thankful
Be Grateful
Are You Tired of the Same, Old Thing?
(reprint)
Laughter—Why Laugh?
Mom
Are You Disturbed?
Unity of the Brothers
Encouragements To Declutter
Do You Have Too Much Stuff?
Too Much Stress
Getting Past the Noise—The Value of Silence
Are You Scatterbrained?
How Good Are You?
Looking for Something Good To Read?
A Cup of Cold Water
I Will Trust When I Cannot See
Encouragement—What Is It?
Being in God's Presence
"Einstein and the Professor"
When God Is Silent
Do You Crave Beauty?
Using Stories to Discipline
The Danger of the Wrong Story
Using Stories to Teach Lessons
God is in charge of the future
November Dare Joy Challenge
Ungratefulness
Developing an Attitude of Gratitude
Looking for Jesus
What Do Your Prayers Reflect?
Life's Little Pleasures
Daniel—Greatly Loved by God
Take Every Thought
Jars of Clay
What Do Your Words Reveal about Your Heart?
How Do You Get Strong Faith?
Too Busy for God's Word?
How Do You Think Like Jesus?
Reflections from a Mom
Pain—What's It Good For?
Why Marry?
Consider the Robin
One Life Who Made a Difference
What Day Are You Living In?
Interrupted by God
Is Jesus Really the Answer to Everything?
Are You Beat Up?
What's Your Hurry?
Are You a Manipulator?
Are You Salty?
Are You Condemned?
Trying to Understand?
Do You Expect Answers to Your Prayers?
Do You Eat Your Stress?
Need Focus?
Going through Trouble?
Immanuel—God with Us
Looking for a Relationship?
When God Says, "No!"
What Do You Do with Left-Overs?
How Great Is Your God?
Are You Needy?
How Do You See Sin?
What Do Your Words Mean?
Is Evil Overwhelming You?
Those Aha Moments
Is Your Soul Happy?
Are You Ignored?
Looking for the God Moment
Do You Know Truth from Almost Truth?
I Believe in Jesus—What Now?
Do You Have Your "Son"-Glasses On?
Less Is More
Singing His Praise
Are You Trying To Do It All?
What Do You Do with All These Prayer Requests?
Have a Problem?
Do You Know How to Pray?
Looking for God in Every Moment
Are You Receptive to God's Blessings?
Tell the Senate: Mothers Aren't Birthing People
Is Your Life Complicated?
How Do We Fight Evil?
Fearfully and Wonderfully Made
Giving Up or Taking Away
the Bible is simple
Are You a Dripping Faucet?
What's Your Testimony?
The Final Move
Be Careful What You Wish For!
Are Your Prayers Answered?
I Choose Joy
What Have You Learned from Your Hardship?
Who Are You Trying to Change?
What's Your Five-Year Plan?
The Danger of "Aloneness"
My Colors
Are You a Whiner?
Are Your Works Approved?
Do You Think You're Stressed?
Is Your Soul Feeling Ragged?
God Speaks to the Heart of the King
What about the Details?
Have You Felt the Long-Suffering of God?
How Does God Lead You?
Do You Have Enough?
Don't Carry More than You Need
Cast the Seed
God Is Faithful
Are You Deceived?
Are You Essential?
Are You Safe?
Are You Tired of the Same Old Thing?
Does the World Make Sense?
Have You Seen God's Majesty?
Do You Feel Judged?
If You Only Had One More Day To Live
Are You Understood?
Do You Long for the Word of God?
Slow Down and Smell the Dead Leaves
Are You Hospitable?
Our Heritage Is Bought by Blood
Are You Disturbed?
Are You Depressed?
I Did It My Way
Finding the Simple Life with Meaning
The Simple Life
Do You Have the Right Words?
Did Your Dream Die?
On the Other Side of the Fence
Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence
Confessions of a Desperate Mom
Saving for Tomorrow
A Wedding Remembered
Who Will Stand in the Gap?
Are You a Protector or a Ruler?
Who Are You?
Are You an Image Bearer or a Wad of Cells?
Are You a Watchman?
Where Do You Find Meaning?
The Lamb of God as Told by a Scribe
What Love Is This?
Remember: The Symbols of Passover Explained
Tea and Rest
Do You Have Peace?
What Makes a Marriage Work?
When Life Is Awful
Are You Strong Enough?
Rules
Seasons
Be Faithful through Suffering
Do You Know the Word?
Wake Up! Strengthen What Remains
Are You Spit in God's Mouth?
Is Jezebel in Your Midst?
Do You Stand Against Satan Himself?
Are You Tired of Being a Mom?
What in the World Is Happening?
It's Not My Story
How Would Your Faith Compare?
Are You Sinking?
Are You a Rule Follower?
Useful for Him
An Intimate Moment with Mary
The Worldview that Makes the
Underclass
Thoughts to Ponder
What Does It Take To Know the
Heart of God?
See the Story in the Stars
Do the Scriptures Burn You?
Being in His Presence
Contentment: It's Not for the Timid
How Secure Are You?
How Do You Respond To Stupid People?
The Earthworm Is My Hero
Heart Issues or Issues of the Heart
Things Aren't Always What They Seem
More faith articles are found here:
under the Table of Contents. Also available in book form.
Or here:
under the Table of Contents. Also available in book form.
Articles on Suffering can be found here,
under Table of Contents. Also available in book form.
Special Days
Remember: The Symbols of
Passover Explained
Aug 12, 2017 The Heavens Declare the Glory of God
July 4th, Freedom
What Is an American Soldier?
Valentine's Day: A Day of Love?
Memorial Day-A Day To Remember
Veterans' Day-To Honor Our Men
Fall Colors
First Thanksgiving Day
Proclamation
Christmas: Stories behind the Songs
Christmas: Stories behind the Songs, part 2