Words Words Words Part 1
It’s Wednesday, August second.
And today I’m thinking about the power of words.
Over the last six months, I’ve been listening to a teacher who talks a lot about the power of the spoken word. I’ve started to pay attention to how my life has changed since being intentional with my words... and it's pretty incredible.
How often do we say things like “I want to… but it will probably never happen.”?
How about the infamous “I can’t”?
How about “I don’t have enough,” or “I’ll be happy when…”?
Or, “I wish I could…”?
I started paying attention to how often I speak my own defeat before I’ve really even given myself a chance at victory.
First, I want to tell you about what I call a "God experience." Then I want to tell you about affirmations, lies, and lastly, speaking life.
1. God Experience.
I have a lot of these, and I usually prefer to keep them private but I will share. I was asleep, around 5AM. I hear this thundering mans voice in my room right next to my bed, so loud I jolt awake.
“YOU CAN AND YOU WILL.”
The authority in the voice was amazing. Loving, but strong. I immediately felt a sense of conviction for all the subtle ways I’ve told myself I can’t and I won’t. That day, I started paying attention to my own words. And I realized that I need to make a lot of changes in order to speak my own victory instead of my defeat.
2. Affirmations
I’ve begun doing affirmations throughout my day. And they work.
My personal version of affirmations fall somewhere in between prayer, preparing my heart to receive certain things, and speaking life over myself and others.
Sometimes we ask for things that we really aren’t ready to receive, so we have to prepare our hearts to receive them. I do a lot of this, because I want a lot out of life.
Example: if I’m asking to meet my soulmate, but I don’t have my own wounds healed from my last relationship, I will carry that into my next relationship. So I may do an affirmation like...
“I reject the lie that I am not enough for love. I receive the truth that I am enough and worthy of a healthy, loving relationship. I reject the lie that I will end up in divorce like my parents. I receive the truth that the plans for my life are good, and I am a new person, separate from them. I release the unforgiveness I’ve been carrying for **insert ex's name**, I speak blessings and joy over them, and I receive the truth that my next relationship will be healthier because I am not carrying any of my pain or anger into it. I reject any negativity spoken over me regarding my love life. I claim the truth that my love life will be whole and beautiful.”
Now, you may be noticing, a lot of my affirmations involve calling out where I’m believing subtle lies.
THIS IS SO IMPORTANT!
If we don’t take the time to examine where we may be believing little lies about our identity, we can’t change our lives for the better.
3. Lies
This has changed my life.
Our wounds often come with a set of lies attached to them. In order to heal those wounds, we have to recognize the lies for what they are. And we have to actively replace them with truth. This can get tricky so I'll give you an example of what I mean.
Example:
My partner cheats on me. I am wounded. Instead of taking ownership they say something like, "well maybe if you were in the mood more and tried a little harder I wouldn't of had to cheat."
Whew, that's a lie to unpack.
Lets break it down. Lie 1. "You are not enough." Lie 2. "You are not attractive." Lie 3. "It's your fault" Lie 4. "You deserve this."
Now lets be real. Those lies are super subtle. And your brain will compound on them with things like "you're not worthy of love," "you're not worthy of a healthy sexual relationship and your body will never be enough for someone," or even, "every relationship you have will fail because you will never be enough."
That's a tangled web of lies, all from one statement! And a verbally abusive person might make ten or fifteen statements like that during a conflict.
By doing my affirmations, I have become a ninja of truth. Every time a lie hits me, or a lie tries to come back from an old wound, I block it with the truth.
So here's how I handle it in this example. I go through one by one, reject the lie, and speak the truth over myself.
Out loud, I say, "I reject the lie that I am not enough. I receive and claim the truth I am more than enough." BOOM. "I reject the lie that I am not attractive. I believe and claim the truth that I am beautiful. I am fearfully and wonderfully made." BOOM. "I reject the lie that his actions are my fault. I receive the truth that I am not responsible for anyone elses actions, and there is no excuse for me to be treated poorly." BOOM. And finally, "I reject the lie that I deserved it. I receive the truth that I am beyond worthy of love, and I deserve someone that loves me completely. In my future, I'm not settling for anything less." BOOM.
Yes it's a little weird at first to get in the habit, but it's changed my life so much.
This tactic is like a shield against every flaming arrow lie that comes your way through your day. And I've realized, If I'm feeling crappy, it's usually because I let a lie in somewhere and accidentally believed it. As soon as I identify it, I can reject it and I usually feel much better.
4. Speaking Life
The point of all this:
Are we speaking life? Or speaking death?
Are we speaking our victory and healing? Or are we speaking our defeat?
Are we speaking and living based on lies or based on truth?
What lies were spoken over you in your life that you need to reject? How has it shaped your life? What can we speak over others and ourselves to bring life and encouragement? How can we carry life in our words?
Feel free to comment and share loves. I would love to keep talking about this and I would love to know how you feel.
Love and blessings,
EMM
Next week: Part 2. I'm going to do my next post on vulnerability and the difference between expressing what we are going through honestly, and speaking death.I know it's not always easy or realistic to speak positively when everything sucks. Lets talk about it.
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