“Gracious words are a honeycomb,
sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.”
Proverbs 16:24
The lights were darkened in a friend’s basement as I cradled my infant daughter in my arms and leaned again my husband. It was one of our annual Married Couple’s Bible Study Reunions when we gathered with the seven couples who had bonded together over Jesus and newlywed life while we were all still in college. By this time most of us had graduated and were adding children to our families.
Someone had suggested watching a movie after the babies were asleep, and a quick trip to the Redbox at the local McDonald’s had produced The Help. After gathering snacks, changing babies, and putting on our comfy clothes, we all settled in to watch.
As I sat with my baby girl wrapped in her favorite flannel blanket, I felt a surge of responsibility well up somewhere deep in my heart as Aibilene, the nanny, looked little May in the eye and pronounced:
“You is kind. You is strong. You is important.”
I knew in my heart of hearts my own baby girl needed to hear words like those. She would need me to look her in the eye and tell her—
“You are a girl who loves because God loves you.”
“You are strong and can do all things through Christ.”
“You are important because God made you for a purpose.”
My baby girl would need me to speak words to her that are “sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.” (Prov. 16:24.)
Words of Life
God has placed mothers in a prime position to speak words of life able to empower our children to live out their purpose with confidence and grace. From the time they are little, children look to their mothers for approval and encouragement. How many times have you seen your child look over his shoulder as if to ask if you believe he or she could do the hard thing before them—the toddler taking steps across the uneven grass, the young child crossing the monkey bars, and countless others?
As mothers we must speak those words of life to our children to encourage them. We must breathe words of life to our children and over our children in order to gird them with the strength and belief that they can accomplish great feats.
Getting Started
Here are some words you can begin speaking to and over your children along with a verse reference for further reading.
- You are loved. (John 3:16)
- You were created wonderfully. (Psalm 139)
- You have a purpose. (Ephesians 2:10)
- You are a gift. (Psalm 127:3-5)
- You are valued. (Mark 10:13-16)
Words to Defeat Lies
What we repeat over and over again to our children when speaking words of life to them on a regular basis gives them ammunition to defeat the lies. When a whispered lie “You aren’t loved,” is breathed into their mind, they can fire back with, “I am loved because God loved me so much He sent Jesus to die for me.”
When our children find themselves bombarded with messages telling them they aren’t good enough, pretty enough, athletic enough, smart enough, or any other enough, we want the soundtrack of truth to play through their minds, so they know their true worth. We as mothers must speak words of truth to fill the playlist in our so that when (not if) our children face the lies of this world, they will have words of truth to defeat those lies telling them they aren’t enough.
The words we speak will be the words our children hear playing in their mind long after they are spoken. Let’s make the words we speak be words of life, words to dispel lies, and words that are sweet to our children’s souls so that our children can one day say of us:
“She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.” (Proverbs 31:26 ESV)
When have you seen the power of words in action?
What words of life will you speak to your children and over your children? Write them on a sticky note and put them where you’ll be reminded to use them.
