Speak Life

"Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit"(Proverbs18:21, NKJV).
"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." I remember hearing that so much during my childhood and even said it a few times myself when someone said something to me that wasn't nice. The truth is that as good as it may have felt to say that I didn't feel as good after because those words really did hurt me.
As much as we would like to as parents, we cannot protect our children from every single things. There will be times where they are out of our presence and around other people who may have been raised differently. We can either choose to focus on what those individuals say or focus on what we as parents say. Our words are powerful enough to help either brighten someone's day or darken it. As parents it is important to be mindful of what we say and even how we say it when it comes to our children.
It is up to us to set a foundation that even when others try to tear our children down, they won't do too much because we as parents have taken the time to pour into our children and speak life. Speaking life can be anything that is positive. At times it may look like counteracting a negative thought or comment. While, at other times it looks like going over positive affirmations routinely to not only help your child memorize good things about themselves, but to meditate on them. Take the time to think about your own childhood who spoke life to you and if it did, how did it affect you? How do you plan on speaking life into your own children?