Growing up, a lesson my parents taught me over and over again was “think before you speak.” Emotion-driven and selfishly seeking to be heard over others, there was a reason this was a constant point of discipline for me. ...
“I just need to see if you’re crazy.” A friend of mine said this to me one day as we were setting up a time to discuss what was going on in my life. ...
When I was young there was a popular commercial about razors on TV. It featured men and women going about their usual way of daily shaving, when all of a sudden— Gotcha! —the razor would cut them, and they would wince in visible, marked pain....
At the beginning of this past semester, I moved into an apartment with five girls. Approaching this season of living with new roommates and living in a location that would likely become a hub for many friends on a regular basis, I began to pray...
I have been subscribing to a workout video streaming service for a while now, and one of the reasons I love and hate it is because of a mantra they always use:“Work to your edge.” They don’t mean “work to your strength” by that....
My husband and I were cast suddenly into a very difficult season of life four and a half years ago when not just one but both of his parents had major life-threatening health crises within a month of each other. It has taken a long...
College is a season in life when you have the most independence and the least responsibility. Over the past three and a half years, I’ve found that statement to be entirely true. I would suggest that you could replace the word “independence” with “energy” and...
Our words—they can bring life or death to another person, encouragement or discouragement. Proverbs 18:21 says, "The tongue can bring life or death; those who love to talk will reap the consequences." ...
My nine-year-old son loves to talk. He can chatter endlessly. And he only knows one volume: loud. I constantly remind him to use his inside voice, but I am still seeking evidence that he even has one. His greatest challenge is that he speaks before...
We can all agree that spewing thoughtless, harmful words to others is damaging. But I have another idea to consider—what about the unspoken word, the silence we sit in, the words we withhold? What if we really took the time to listen to the voice...
Driving to lunch yesterday I saw a frightening thing. Another car had made a very wrong turn and was traveling the wrong way down an exit ramp of a major interstate, about to enter the wrong side of oncoming traffic! My first reaction was to...
“He who guards his mouth preserves his life, but he who opens wide his lips shall have destruction” (Proverbs 13:3). The word of God speaks clearly about the power of the tongue to wound or heal. Throughout my life I have used the written word...
I find myself in somewhat of a unique place when it comes to the power of words and how I have seen their power of death take over not in what was said, but in what was not said. Words that are spoken have the...
Have you ever received an email or text that was so delicately worded, so saturated with cordial fluff, that you had to really filter through every sentence to find the main point? The book of James is the opposite of this. James is as straight-up...