The Power of the Tongue for Good

29 Nov The Power of the Tongue for Good

Last week, we looked at examples of the power of the tongue for harm. This week, we look at the power of the tongue for good.

Encouragement

The power of encouragement is impressive. There are few things more powerful.

It can turn defeat into victory, sadness into joy, despair into hope. Mark Twain once remarked that he could live for two months on a good compliment. John Maxwell said, “Everyone needs encouragement. And everyone who receives it – young or old, successful or less-than-successful, unknown or famous – is changed by it.”

Studies have shown that children who receive encouragement from a teacher are significantly more likely to continue their education. Other studies have shown that workplace happiness skyrockets when employees receive encouragement from a boss.

Neuroscience has shown that positive words can actually change your brain, alter your genes, build resiliency, promote healthy mental function, and trigger the motivational centers of your brain.

 Perhaps that’s why the Bible says so much about encouragement:

• Worry weighs a person down; an encouraging word cheers a person up (Proverbs 12:25).
• Kind words are like honey – sweet to the soul and health for the body (Proverbs 16:24).
• Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them (Ephesians 4:29)

Don’t you love it when someone says something to encourage you? Well, that’s how much others enjoy being encouraged by you. Saying encouraging things to others is one of the most powerful ways we can use the tongue for good. What is more, like many positive attributes, not only does it help those who hear it, it helps those who speak it.

Truth in Love

Ephesians 4:15 teaches that we are to “speak the truth in love.” It can be hard to do. We have a great deal of trouble keeping our balance. We want to either speak the truth without love, or we want to speak love without truth.

But Proverbs says, “Open rebuke is better than love carefully concealed. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful” (27:5-6).

So we see that it is the duty of a loving friend to tell someone the truth if it needs to be said.

Therefore, if someone comes to you with truth that is hard to hear, the thing to do is to hear it anyway. Proverbs 15:31 says, “The ear that hears the rebukes of life will abide among the wise.”

The key is that what is said must be truth, and it must be said in love.

Good Reports

One of the most uplifting things we can hear is when someone tells us something good someone said about us. Perhaps you are a parent, and your child’s teacher has told you what a good student he or she is in math. Don’t keep that information to yourself; share it with your child. Suppose you hear someone say a person taught a really good Sunday school class. Go tell the person. A good report is a powerful way to say words that help.

A lot of good in the world can be magnified if we develop the habit of sharing with others something good that we see or hear about them.

Cheerfulness

Would you rather be around a cheerful person or a cheerless person? Unless you are highly unusual, you would rather be around a cheerful person. Why? Well, because they are so . . . cheerful.

• Cheerfulness and contentment are great beautifiers, and are famous preservers of good looks. – Charles Dickens
• Cheerfulness can change misfortune into love and friends. – Louisa May Alcott
• What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but scattered along life’s pathway, the good they do is inconceivable. – Joseph Addison

Negative people drag us down. Positive people lift us up. Cheerful people fill us with encouragement, hope, pleasure, and good will.

Even Scripture has a good deal to say about cheerfulness:

• A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person’s strength (Proverbs 17:22) – NLT).
• This is the day which the Lord has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it (Psalm 118:24 – NLT).
• God loves a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:7 – NLT).

Therefore, if we want to speak words that help, we should be cheerful. Cheerfulness makes life go better for us, as well as for those we are around.

Conclusion

Some people are, by nature, more positive than others. But all of us can be more positive than we might naturally be by making the decision to be. A world of good can open up to us if we accept the challenge to become a person whose words help and heal. Abraham Lincoln said, “A person is about as happy as he makes up his mind to be.”

The Lord wants to cleanse our hearts of hurtful speech. It is for our own good and the good of others, as well as the Lord’s reputation, that our hearts be cleaned up and our language reflect the cleansing.

We should study our speech and be honest with yourselves. We can ask the Holy Spirit to pinpoint our weaknesses and to strengthen us to overcome them. We can each be a person whose words help, not hurt.

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