I feel nudged to ask a serious question… When we don’t agree with or are ‘offended’ by something someone did or something someone said, does that give us the right to be cruel? To use our words to break down a person? I’m hopeful all of you would agree this is not okay!
Why is it then that ‘word’ meanness appears to be ‘okay’ and acceptable on social media? I will never ever understand this or any kind of meanness or cruelty!
No surprise that there is a chapter in the bible dedicated to this word meanness. James 3 is titled Taming the Tongue! Something ALL of us could use help with! Parts of this chapter read something like this:
A small bit can move a large horse.
A small rudder can move an enormous ship.
A small spark can set a whole forest on fire.
Our tongue is small but it is mighty. It can corrupt our whole person!
In the picture above, Toby Mac says it perfectly, “Be careful with your words! The tongue has no bones but is strong enough to break a heart.”
Why are we breaking hearts with our words? Especially on social media? WHY? In my humble opinion, people, there is no place for this. Agree with the bible…
“With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be.” James 3:9-10
So, may I ask a favor? Before sharing our strong opinions about something on social media, let’s give it some serious thought, and let’s please pause before we post! Because we all need help taming our tongue! We’ve all made mistakes in life. God certainly knows I have! So, please…let’s stop condemning others with our words when these human beings may or may not have made decisions we don’t like. Let kindness prevail!
Thanks in advance for considering this challenge. 🙏
Hello. My name is Wendy and I am a child of Alzheimer’s. Yes, I am a daughter of parents who both suffered from cognitive decline. My dad was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, and my mom was diagnosed with dementia and they lost their battles with this memory thief. Quite frankly, cognitive decline scares me way more than the virus being dealt with these days.
I had a moment of confusion the other day, and it caused a little bit of a panic in me. I was in a new school building reading to PreK children. A friend had also joined me. When we finished with the PreK students, this friend wanted to head to the first grade classrooms we had read to a few weeks prior so she could share a gift with them. As we began to venture to those classrooms, my memory failed me as I thought those classrooms were on the next floor up. She reminded me they were on the same floor just over on the other side. While we were chatting and walking to the other side, I got a little discombobulated on which way to go.
When I returned home, I fretted about this confusion for a little while. I’m sure you can imagine the negative rabbit hole my thoughts jumped down. “What if I have early onset of cognitive decline? What if I end up in a nursing home like my parents did? What if, what if…”
I am not a fan of the words what if… As Matthew West sings in his song, “Is my story gonna have the same two words in every chapter? What if, what if? What I’m trying to say is I don’t wanna say these words again, What if, what if!”
I decided to call my daughter to talk it through with her. She is good at speaking words of reassurance to her mom.
She gently reminded me: “Mom, you know you get disoriented easily. That is not unusual for you. Don’t let satan do that to you! You are just fine. It’s a brand new building and you were in a different classroom!” After we hung up, I didn’t even try to fight the tears. I just let them fall because tears of relief have a cleansing effect.
I love Jesus and I believe in scripture! So, WHY on Earth do I allow these fears to become a stronghold in my mind and heart? I know I am to “fear not” (Isaiah 41:10 NKJV), to “not worry about anything” (Philippians 4:6 NLT), and that “worry does not add any single hour to my life” (Matthew 6:27 NIV)! Yet, these fears sneak in and try shoving me into a deep dark hole. Grrr…
Well, after the encouraging words from my daughter and after my tears finally stopped flowing, I lifted up a prayer and boldly asked Jesus, again, to protect my mind and my heart and to help me replace the lies of the enemy with truths from God’s Word.
So, here is the truth…
Hello. My name is Wendy and I am a child of the one true king, daughter of my Savior and best friend, Jesus, who loves me unconditionally. I know “His goodness and loving kindness will follow me all the days of my life” (Psalm 23:6 ASV) no matter what life challenges come my way. Furthermore, as Priscilla Shirer has preached: “Jesus is our savior, our guide, our peace, our joy, our comfort, our Lord, and…He reigns to bring us peace.”
Those are the truths I want to focus on! Those are the truths I need to replace the lies!
Will I never fear again? Oh, heavens no. Every single day I need to intentionally capture my thoughts, and give my absolute best to change my mindset to thinking positive thoughts and quote the Truth instead of focusing on lies!
Here is our challenge…to think about such things such as “whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy” (Philippians 4:8 NIV). To start speaking life over ourselves and others (like my daughter did with me when I called her) rather than speaking death. To delete all our “what ifs.” And finally, let us defeat all lies that torment us, and replace them with Truth! God’s Truth!
One of my favorite movies from childhood is Mary Poppins. Do you remember the scene when Mary Poppins reaches down deep into her bottomless bag and pulls out her measuring tape? She wants to see how the Banks children measure up. Michael is ‘extremely stubborn and suspicious.” Jane is “rather inclined to giggle and doesn’t put things away.” When the children ask Mary how she measures up, Mary finds, as she expected, she is ‘practically perfect in every way.’
I have to admit, most days in my life are far from practically perfect in any way shape or form. Can any of you relate?
Those times when we feel insignificant because of life’s let downs. We didn’t get the job we interviewed for or we didn’t get an interview at all. Because of ‘rule’ changes, we are told we are no longer qualified to teach a class we’ve been teaching for 18 years. We aren’t allowed to visit because of someone else being there. Or, when no one liked our Facebook post or our Twitter post or our Instagram post. 🙄
If you are anything like me, I’d say we oscillate between feelings of disappointment and feelings of failure. We begin to think negatively and even say negative thoughts out loud. “I’m not qualified enough, good enough, creative enough, knowledgeable enough. What is wrong with me? I’m such a loser.”
Let me reassure you right now, those negative thoughts are all lies from the enemy! We need to capture such thoughts and lift ourselves up by speaking life! We must speak truth.
Let’s always remember that we are who God says we are, NOT who the world says we are. So, who exactly are we according to God?
I’ve created Bible ABC cards to remind myself of who God says we are. It helps me focus on truth and not the lies of the enemy. I’ve listed a few of these promises below…
We are…
Accepted: Romans 15:7 reads “Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you…”
Blessed: Ephesians 1:3 promises “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.”
Children of God: 1 John 3:1 states “See what great love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are.”
Forgiven: Ephesians 4/32 assures “Be kind and tender-hearted to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”
Healed: Isaiah 53:5 declares “…by His wounds we are healed.”
Protected: 2 Thessalonians 3:3 proclaims “But the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one.”
Valued: Luke 12:7 affirms “And the very hairs on your head are numbered. So don’t be afraid, you are more valuable to God than a flock of sparrows.”
The next time life hands us disappointments and tries to make us think negatively about ourselves, let’s capture those thoughts and replace them with God’s truth! We ARE who God says we are.
(If you’d like a deck of the Bible ABC cards, please let me know in the comments. I’ll do my best to send you one 😊).
edUconnections 