Who Has Your Ear?

Who is speaking into your life? Have you ever thought about it? It is very important whom we allow to speak into our lives because not everyone is someone whose words will encourage and support. Not everyone’s words are truth and life. The Bible says that we have the power of life and death in our tongues and we should endeavor to speak life. Well, that seems like a no-brainer but not everyone does it all of the time. Words are powerful, words spoken to us, words spoken by us and words spoken over us. Today, I want to address words spoken to us and over us.

I sometimes wish I could walk around in a bubble where only truth and life are spoken to me and over me because I can feel the difference in my body between those words of life and the negative, untruthful words. All words have weight and substance and we need to be mindful of both those we are speaking and those we are hearing. We are affected by the words spoken to us and over us, even if we try to not listen or take them to heart. A constant barrage of negative or critical words will wound our souls. The old saying, “Sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me”, is a lie. Often, words are more wounding than a physical strike or blow and the damage often lasts longer.

So how do we avoid those who would wound us with their words? Do we have the right to keep those people out of our lives or limit our contact? I say we owe it to ourselves to do just that. It is part of caring for ourselves well. If we are in relationship with someone who wounds with their words, we need to let them know that their words are hurtful and if they make no effort to understand and to cease from the behavior, we have every right to limit our contact. I often hear people say, “I can take it and I know that she doesn’t mean it”, well to that I say, “You are playing with a snake, hoping it won’t bite you and that is foolish”.

What about the person who speaks words which are not hurtful but are just negative? We choose the environments in which we place ourselves. Do we want to live in the country or in the city? Do we want to work in a big company or a small, mom and pop business? Do we want to spend our free time outside or inside? The choices are almost endless but have you thought about your choice when it comes to that negative coworker or family member who drains the life out of you? Do you limit your time around that person or just allow them to come by your office or cubicle or into your space and just dump on you? Have you thought about it? When a person brings their negative words/attitudes to you about nearly everything, it is like allowing your neighbor to dump their garbage in your yard. We all have those people in our lives but we can choose to limit the amount of time that we will speed listening to their words.

Another area in which we choose the types of words that are spoken to and over us is in choosing with whom we will share our lives and from whom we will glean advice. When you are dealing with an issue in your life, to whom do you go in order to get advice or to just bounce ideas off of? If you have not thought about it, I would like to challenge you to. We all need people in our lives that we can talk to and gain wisdom from. I believe we need several people in our lives that will give us wise counsel. There are those from whom you would ask financial advice, spiritual advice, or just feedback in order to insure that you are thinking clearly about a matter. If you don’t have those people in your life, begin to look for them. How do they manage their own lives? Do you admire the way that they live? Do you feel that they are mature and successful? I believe in praying for God to send those people into our lives. It is a prayer that He answers. So let’s recap.

Whose words do you limit being spoken into and over your life?

• Those Who Regularly Use Their Words as Daggers
• Negative Nellys Who Rarely have Anything Positive to Say
• Those Who Do not Give Wise Counsel

If you find yourself feeling hurt, down or exhausted after a conversation with someone, remember this litmus test. Maybe, just maybe that person is not speaking Truth and Life to you and only you have the power to change that. Don’t allow anyone to dump their garbage onto your lawn or into your life!