A few weeks ago, my sweet husband took me on a date to see the movie "The Help"; I highly recommend this film, it's very good, insightful, and inspirational. While many scenes from the movie struck a chord with me, one has played over and over in my mind several times since the first time I saw it. In this scene Abilene Clark, played by Viola Davis, is speaking to the little girl that she takes care of every day; I have to add that this little girl doesn't seem to be very loved or valued by her parents because they think she is ugly and because they are too busy with everything else; she says, "You is kind, You is smart, You is important.".
How incredible are those words? She has just told that child that she matters, that she is valuable!! She doesn't even address how the child looks, although I thought she was darling... it didn't matter, Viola addressed what mattered, what would stay with that child for the rest of her life and help her succeed. Viola understood that if she could convince this young girl that she indeed was kind, smart, and important then she would grow up to be confident and accomplish great things!
"The tongue can bring death or life..." Proverbs 18:21
What is our tongue bringing? What is our tongue bringing to us? What do we speak over ourselves? Do we tell ourselves that we're daughters (or sons) of the most High God and that we are the righteousness of God through Christ Jesus? Do we tell ourselves that we're kind, smart, and important? Do we bring life to ourselves? Or, do we bring death? Do we tell ourselves that we are worthless, stupid, and will never amount to anything?
What is our tongue bringing? What is our tongue bringing to others? What do we speak to/over others? Do we allow our tongue to cut others and make them feel like they are nothing? Do we bring death to them by tearing them down and crushing their spirit? Or, do we bring life with our tongue? Do we tell others that they are loved and accepted? Do we tell others that they are important and that they matter to us and to the world?
What is our tongue bringing? What is our tongue bringing to God? What do we speak about God? Do our tongues bring him glory and honor all the time or only when important people are looking? Do our tongues tell others the importance of knowing God and the love that Jesus showed us in dying on the cross? Do our tongues bring death by denying who He is? Or, do our tongues bring life by sharing the good news of the Gospel to everyone we meet?
What is our tongue bringing? What is our tongue bringing to our children? Do we bring life to our children by building them up or do we bring death to them by tearing them down? Do we tell them that they are kind, smart, and important? Or, do we tell them that they are bad, stupid, and insignificant? I believe that as Christian parents our greatest calling is the ministry we provide to our children; we're called to raise them up in the way that they should go! We're imperfect parents but we have a perfect God to point our children to and it's through God that we can find the strength to do our very best in raising up tomorrow's leaders. Our children will usher in a whole generation of people into the kingdom of God that you and I can't reach but they won't know that they are to do that or that they can do that if we aren't using our tongues to tell them that they can and that they should.
After we saw the movie, I began to make a concise effort to say this to Eli every day, "You're kind, you’re smart, and you’re important." I wanted to use this as a sort of jumping off point in my efforts to build him up, not that I've been tearing him down... just that I wanted to really start using my tongue for LIFE. Now, when I say this to him, this is how he responds: "ind, mart, porant" :) it melts my heart and I know that he is feeling loved and special even though he doesn't fully grasp it yet!
We can't bring life on our own but if we're believers, we have the Holy Spirit living inside of us and through Him we can begin to speak life and use our tongues to build up instead of tear down. Amen?
