Words that Shape Us

There is a significant power in words. When a stranger stops to pay you a compliment, their words are powerful. Likewise, when someone speaks a negative word about you or to you, their words have power. Words good or bad, begin to shape your heart.

To this day I remember where I was sitting and the exact look on my high school art teachers face as he leaned down to me and said: "one day in college you won't be able to get by on your good looks." Oh, hello. Thanks for the compliment buddy. NOT! Can somebody tell him that I graduated with a 4.0 GPA with my Masters in Education?!

Words. They are powerful.

What words are feeding your soul?

Growing up it was always a special day when my mom allowed me to put a Seventeen magazine on the grocery store checkout belt. I couldn't wait to get home with my magazine. I would lay on my bed and flip through its pages to see all the beautiful girls. Then I would proceed to read it cover to cover where I would find out how to play hard to get, how to apply eyeshadow in the right shade for my eye color, how to look my best in any social setting, and countless other tips and tricks. As I got older my magazine of choice became Cosmopolitan. Now I was reading about diet tips, workout routines to give me buns of steel and thighs to make the boys drool. I was reading about how to seduce boys without ever speaking a word.

The words that were shaping my reality were far from words of truth.

Turn my eyes away from worthless things; preserve my life according to your word. Psalm 119:37
In my teen years and my early twenties I didn't read the words of truth that lay closed in a book that collected dust in the drawer of my night stand. Maybe that is why I made so many mistakes in those years. I pursued becoming the girl in the magazine rather than pursuing becoming the girl in the Word of God.
The magazines indirectly told me: I wasn't good enough, smart enough, pretty enough, talented enough.
But the truth says You are all together beautiful, my darling; there is no flaw in you. {Song of Solomon: 4:7}
Reading the wrong words will tell you that you need to strive and change who you are to get where you want to go in life. But the word of God says Be STILL, and know that I am God. {Psalms 46:10}
The words in the magazines will tell you how to find the perfect job and live the perfect life. The Word of God says For I know the plans have for you. Plans to give you a hope and a future.{Jeremiah 29:11}
Words will inevitably shape our lives it is just a matter of which words we will choose to plant in our hearts.


xoxo,