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Gindi Vincent

The Dish on Career, Fashion, Faith, and Family

words

The Words Series: Part 4, I Love You

August 21, 2014 by Gindi Leave a Comment

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My trio started school on Monday.  I tried not to completely fall apart since this year is only PreK-4 and I know that next year I’ll be a wreck.

As I prepared for all the back to school activities this weekend, including having to pack lunches again, I purchased two special packs of napkins while I was at Target.  I thought it would be fun for the kids to have kid-friendly napkins in their lunch kits when they opened them at school the first week.  Bold red pirate ship napkins for the boys and bright pink Hello Kitty napkins for the little lady.

I woke early on Monday morning to prepare a big first day of school breakfast and pack their lunches.  I sometimes write the kids or Bray notes and wanted to reintroduce the tradition in their lunches.  Since the kids are pre-readers, I marked a big I, then a heart, then a U, and signed my name in black marker that would show up.

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The kids had a wonderful first day, and as I was talking to the baby in the kitchen Monday night he said, “Mommy, I missed you at lunchtime today when I saw your note to me.”  I gave him a big hug and kiss and told him I loved him and we went on with our activities.

I did the same thing with the napkins Tuesday morning when I packed lunches.  After dinner, the baby came into the kitchen and said, “Mommy, the same thing happened today,” and he threw his arms around my neck.  I asked, “You missed me again?”  He nodded yes and then started to cry.  Squeezing my neck in his tiger hold while these precious tears wet my check, we stood wrapped together for a minute.  “I can stop leaving the notes, I hate to make you sad at lunch,” I whispered into his little ear.  “No, no, don’t stop.  I love them,” he replied smiling.

There’s a lot to say about words.  All the right and wrong ways to use them.  But there is nothing more important to say about words than to remind us all to say (or write) I love you.  Bray and I tell the kids every morning and every night.  We tell each other we love each other every day even if we’ve had a big fight.  Our parents tell us they love us whenever we see one another.  Heck, sometimes my friends and I even say it.

Telling someone who you love that you love them is one of the most powerful things you will ever do.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. I Corinthians 13:13

By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me. Psalm 42:8

Filed Under: Faith, Family Tagged With: i love you, words

The Words Series, Part 3: Them’s Fightin’ Words

August 20, 2014 by Gindi Leave a Comment

 

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Have you ever had someone be mean to you?

Really mean.

Maybe it was warranted, if meanness can ever be warranted, but maybe it was completely unsolicited and the person just needed to take out their sadness or madness or terribleness on someone and you happened to be the closest human.

In Part 3 of The Words Series, we’re talking about what to do when you hear “fightin’ words.”  We talked about gracious words in Part 1 and about silencing ourselves when fewer words are called for in Part 2, but today we explore what God tells us to do when harsh words are leveled at us.

1.  Recognize verbal attacks on you will inevitably happen.

People having been saying deceptive things for thousands of years.  Leveling attacks against one another.  Spreading untruths.  God tells us not to put any stock in them.  And He warns us not to start doing it ourselves (even in return).

Do not trust in deceptive words. – Jeremiah 7:8

If anyone teaches otherwise…they are conceited and understand nothing. They have an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions and constant friction between people of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth.  I Timothy 6:4

Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Because of your false words and lying visions, I am against you. – Ezekiel 13:8

These people are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them.  For they mouth empty, boastful words …they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error.  They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves.  II Peter 2:18

2.  Acknowledge there is nothing you can do to control what someone else says.

3.  Forgive them anyways.

In a conversation between Jesus and Peter, Peter thought he was being magnanimous by saying, How many times should I forgive my brother? Up to seven times?  Because let’s face it, forgiving someone seven times IS pretty magnanimous by today’s standards – and I’m sure it was then too.  But Jesus replied with, No, not seven times.  But seventy times seven.  (Matthew 18)  We don’t have to continue to put ourselves in the path of someone who attacks us or tears down our character, but recognizing there isn’t anything we can do about it means that we keep forgiving them if they keep attacking – even from a distance.

If you forgive others, you will be forgiven.  Matthew 6:14

Every kind of sin and slander can be forgiven.  Matthew 12:31

4.  Only respond with words that reflect your character.  Do not allow someone else’s meanness to incite you to impugn your own character; that feeds into what they’re seeking (a reaction, inflicting pain) and it gives their statements credibility if you respond in anger. 

There’s a scene in I Samuel 24 when King Saul and David, who was not yet king, were near one another in the desert at the height of Saul’s hatred for David.  David had the opportunity to kill King Saul as his men encouraged him to do.  But instead, David rebuked his men, and called out to King Saul, “This day you have seen with your own eyes how the Lord delivered you into my hands in the cave. Some urged me to kill you, but I spared you; I said, ‘I will not lay my hand on my lord, because he is the Lord’s anointed.’ See, my father, look at this piece of your robe in my hand! I cut off the corner of your robe but did not kill you. See that there is nothing in my hand to indicate that I am guilty of wrongdoing or rebellion. I have not wronged you, but you are hunting me down to take my life.  May the Lord judge between you and me. And may the Lord avenge the wrongs you have done to me, but my hand will not touch you. As the old saying goes, ‘From evildoers come evil deeds,’ so my hand will not touch you.”

Saul, shocked, responds, “You are more righteous than I,” he said. “You have treated me well, but I have treated you badly. You have just now told me about the good you did to me; the Lord delivered me into your hands, but you did not kill me.  When a man finds his enemy, does he let him get away unharmed? May the Lord reward you well for the way you treated me today.  I know that you will surely be king and that the kingdom of Israel will be established in your hands.”

I don’t know what would have happened had David acted rashly, as he sometimes did, and killed King Saul.  I don’t know if that would have prevented him from ascending to King.  But I do know that he trusted the Lord to judge what happened, refused to be drawn into a terrible reaction by someone else’s bad words and actions, and he was rewarded by becoming King.

5.  Then leave it to God to sort out. 

A little later in this story, II Samuel 22 shares David’s joy and ultimate blessing because he left it in God’s hands:

David sang to the Lord the words of this song when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.  He said, The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation…He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters. He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me. They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the Lord was my support. He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.

No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue which rises against you in judgment you shall condemn.  This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord says the Lord.  Isaiah 54:17

 

Filed Under: Faith, Women Tagged With: fightin' words, words

The Words Series: Part 1, Healing Words

August 18, 2014 by Gindi 5 Comments

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I love words. 

No really, it’s more than just being a writer and a voracious reader.  If you’ve ever taken Gary Chapman’s The 5 Love Languages quiz, then you know there’s an entire love language called Words of Affirmation.  That’s mine.  In spades.

Recently, because of some life circumstances that required me to pray very specifically over words, I had the opportunity to study what God says about words.  As I read all these references to words in the Bible (there’s over 400!), I saw some themes emerging.  Themes about what to say, how to say it, when not to speak, how to react with words, what His words look like, and so much more.

I could easily have written a ten part series on God’s take on words.  However, since you might not be QUITE as obsessed with this little study as I am, I’ll limit this series on words to this week.  I know I’ve only barely skimmed the depths of what God would really like to teach me.

Part 1 is about using your words to heal, and not to wound.  I’ve read Proverbs 16 many times, and while I love the entire chapter (especially that whole part about gray hair being a crown…), it has profound wisdom to offer on what words to use and how to use them.

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Gracious words are a honeycomb,
    sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.

I love this visual of a honeycomb.  All those beautiful hexagons working fitted together by focused bees collaborating to create a mound of honey.  What if every time I went to utter a sentence, I filtered it through a honeycomb?  {===>Click To Tweet} What if I made sure that the words that came out of my mouth everyday were sweet as honey rather than bitter or harsh?

This is not the only reference in the Bible to gracious, healing words.  There are beautiful images in Deuteronomy 32, Let my teaching fall like rain and my words descend like dew, like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plants.  Moses went on to say, in verse 47, “They are not just idle words for you—they are your life. By them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess…”

God provides a lot of guidance about words.  He tells us when not to use them (more to come), how He uses them, and how those bent on destruction can use them for their purposes, but when He talks about GOOD words, and our call to use good words, there’s often beautiful healing imagery.  Imagine if the words we uttered to our friends and our spouse and our kids and our co-workers were like rain showers on new grass.  {===>Click To Tweet}  In other words, the exact words they needed to have spoken in their lives.  Proverbs 18 tells us that the tongue has the power of life and death.  Life and death!  Isn’t that extraordinary?  How can we make sure that what we say speaks life and healing?

Your words have supported those who stumbled; you have strengthened faltering knees. Job 4:4

And Mordecai sent letters to all the Jews…of goodwill and assurance. Esther 9:30

How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Psalm 119: 103

Gracious words are pure in his sight. Proverbs 15:26

Therefore encourage one another with these words. I Thess.4:18

When we head back to Proverbs 16, the honeycomb scripture that propelled me into this study of words, the entire chapter has so much to tell us about using words.  I should have know such wisdom would come from a chapter in the Bible that starts with this as its introduction: To humans belong the plans of the heart, but from the Lord comes the proper answer of the tongue. It goes on to say, “The hearts of the wise make their mouths prudent..,” and “Gracious words promote instruction…”

How do we make our words gracious?  How do we find words to heal?  From the Lord.  It’s right there as clear as can be.  All of the instruction that follows in the chapter about how to speak and what to say stems from the introductory guidance:  from the Lord comes the proper answer of the tongue.

However, reality shows us that our words, and other’s words, are often not gracious.  We sometimes use words when our mouths should remain closed.  Words from the mouth of the wise are gracious… (Eccles. 10:12) BUT it goes on to say…

That’s what we’ll cover tomorrow – the flip side.

Photo Credit: Nutty Maths

Filed Under: Faith, Women Tagged With: healing words, words

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