It May Not Take Sticks 'n Stones

I feel like I first need to apologize to any blog readers I may have for the lack of posts. I wish I could blame it on pregnancy or fatigue or a lack of time but I have to be honest and say it has more to do with the sad state of my quiet time over the past couple of months. There's something about sitting at the feet of God and having a good conversation, letting God feed my mind with His word and processing it over the course of the day that lent me some sense of creativity to write a blog. And with a lack of quiet time that was easily gone. I have missed it dearly though and I'm glad having this blog around made me realize what an impact it had on my life before I let it slide completely.

My new translation project gives me a lot of free time. I've used some of it to catch up with movies from home that I haven't seen in ages. I recently watched a Hindi movie titled "Taare Zameen Par". One among a few that I would recommend to someone that understands the language or doesn't mind subtitles. One scene in particular really stood out in my mind. The protagonist, a teacher, is trying to help the parents of a dyslexic boy understand that every time they belittle him about his poor grades and performance in school they are just crushing his spirit a little more. He mentions that in the Solomon Islands, some villagers practice a unique form of felling trees. They just surround it and abuse it with their words and eventually the tree dies and falls over.

The Bible reminds us a few times about the importance of the words of our mouth and gives us this instruction in Ephesians 4:29 - Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. In other words, if you're going to open your mouth and say something that could discourage someone, cut someone down or do no good to them its better to just shut up. I've realized I give my opinion all too freely sometimes under the guise of "constructive criticism" but only a small percentage of that may actually build someone up. It's an area I need to work on, very hard. I've watched Will in two scenarios - wilt under an authority that was particularly sarcastic and critical of him and absolutely excel under an authority that encouraged and motivated him. It's time I made a choice about the kind of influence I want to be for the people in my life.