Every Word Leaves a Mark

 

  

I just finished reading this  lovely book.  It was wonderful in every way - I highly recommend it.  Actually, put it at the top of your list, you won't be sorry.

I've been told the movie is every bit as good as the book.  Hopefully I will see it before it leaves theaters, but the odds are not high, as the last movie I saw that didn't have animated characters or had a rating higher than PG was 'The Passion'.  No kidding.

 There are many, many parts of this book that I just loved.  Aside from a story that so eloquently and poignantly depicts our nation's path toward integration, I was hit gut level with one specific part of the story.  It hit me right smack in my mama-heart, I think I may have audibly gasped when the realization of what I had just read hit me.

Aibileen {black maid} is talking to Mae Mobley {two year old white girl Aibileen is in charge of caring for}.  Here is what she says:

I look down at Baby Girl, see how her forehead's all wrinkled up between the eyes.

  She studying hard on something.

 I touch her cheek.  "You alright, baby?"

She say, "Mae Mo bad."

 The way she say it, like it's a fact, make my insides hurt.

 "Mae Mobley," I say cause I got a notion to try something.

"You a smart girl?"

She just look at me, like she don't know.

"You a smart girl." I say again.

She say, "May Mo smart."

I say, " You a kind little girl?"

She just look at me.  She two years old.  She don't know what she is yet.

 Take a minute and let those words settle.  She doesn't know what she is yet.    Children are born without any real sense of who they are, what they will become or who they will become. Each newborn is a fresh, clean slate with a deep reservoir to hold all the words we speak over them.  Every word leaves a mark and our words mold and shape future generations.

Ever since Eden, the enemy has twisted what God speaks to us.  The abundant life Christ promises becomes an empty, desolate, hopeless life if we listen to Satan.  He wants us to believe the lies, focus on the faults and fulfill all the negative things said about us.  If we do that, we are well within his grasp.

 This makes me keenly aware that what I say, especially to my children, matters.  It matters greatly as this will be but a part of the legacy I will leave.  Will I have strong, confident, capable people fully aware of my deep love and care for them, or will I leave a wake of doubting, timid people who don't have the confidence to live out the abundant life, skeptical of their own mothers love and approval?

Yes, a mother's influence is that strong.

I need to remember that, very often, my tone conveys more than the words I use.  {"It's not what you said, but how you said it."  My kids hear that often - it goes for me too.}

I need to speak life giving words.  I need to speak encouraging words.  I need to speak affirming words.  I need to speak positive words.  I need the speak THE Word.

'The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.'

Proverbs 18:21

Blessings,
Kim