Has this thought ever occurred to you? Two people seem very much alike. On the outside, they seem about the same age, same height, same weight, same likes and dislikes, even same ethnicity, but when you probe further, they are very different. One seems well adjusted, content, congenial, and likable, but the other is hostile, angry, spiteful, and anti-social. And you wonder how two people, who on the outside can’t really be distinguish, are so different on the inside. What is making them different? Their past. The words that have been spoke to. (Yes, I understand that there are other factors….)

The way I’d like to think of them is that they have the same hardware (outside). But different softwares (inside) have been written inside of them through words spoken to them by the people around them… These days, top of the line smartphones all look pretty much the same. But depending on whether it’s android or apple, they work very differently. It’s what’s inside that makes the person. And what makes the person in large part is the words that have been whispered to their ears.

“You are stupid.” “You are ugly.” “You won’t amount to anything.” “I hate you” “You are worthless.” The software is being written into our brains. And we live our lives believing and acting out those beliefs. They become self-fulfilling prophecies. We act stupid. We become ugly. We don’t amount to anything because that’s what’s written in our hearts and brains.

But those who grew up hearing, “You are precious,” “You are wonderful,” “I love you,” “I will never leave you no matter what,” a different software is being written into their hearts and brains. And they will act that out as well.

Yes, sometimes the hardware is faulty. But very rarely. It’s the software being written into them through words spoken to them and about them.

“Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.”

(Proverbs 18:21)

Your words can kill or let live. Use them to let live.

PH