“9With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness. 10Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be.” – James 3: 9-11 (NIV)
“The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” -Proverbs: 18:21
This weekend I had the opportunity to see Tyler Perry and Oprah’s new film, “Precious”. The movie is about 17 year old Precious Jones – an African American girl who is obese, the mother of two children, struggling to get her GED, and living with an abusive mother (played by MoNique). While I would strongly suggest my “under 18 crowd” not see it without being accompanied by a parent (there is very harsh language and adult situations), the movie was powerful and portrayed some of the darker realities that some of our sisters face every day. While there were many issues that stuck out me as I watched the film, I was maybe most disturbed by the use of language in the movie. In scene after scene after scene, Precious was referred to in a number of degrading ways, such that she began to internalize those words and began to view herself in a negative way because of it.
As I watched the movie I was reminded of how much power our words have. Psalm 18 reminds us that the things we say to people have the ability to breath life into persons’ lives or to slowly tear them down to the point of death. This is a power that we cannot take lightly! Ephesians 4:29 reminds us that when we speak, we should only speak words that will lift people up (Paul uses the word edify). Even when our classmates, our friends or our siblings get on our last nerves, it is better for us to walk away and say nothing then to tear people down with our words.
Like Donald Lawrence, make the decision to speak life! Not only should I try my best to talk to people in a way that encourages them, but I should even speak life into myself. We have all things about ourselves that we may not like, but speak positively about yourself. When in doubt, say what God says: I’m the head and not the tail, I am fearfully and wonderfully made, I am made in the image of God, I can do all things through Christ!
~Eagle Brother Joshua Mitchell~
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