PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 296: The Words We Speak -- Part 2
LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell
EPISODE 296
: The Words We Speak -- Part 2
The words we speak are our most powerful building or destroying tool. We continue talking today about the kinds of words that will make our homes HOME SWEET HOME.
Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to The Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.
Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies! Back to speaking about the words we speak in our homes. We are talking about the different words, positive words, that God wants us to have coming out of our mouths.
We’re up to . . .
No. 16. HEALING WORDS
This is a beautiful one. Actually, God wants us to build healing homes. Our homes are meant to be places of healing.
A while back, I found a most interesting Scripture, Luke 12:42. It was a parable: “And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.”
It’s talking about this man who rules over his household. In the New Testament, the word that is usually used to describe a home or a family is the word oikos or oikia. But this time, when it says “household,” it has a different word. The Greek word is therapeia, which means “to give care, especially medical care; domestic, healing.” It’s a word that means healing. It’s talking about a household. Here it’s talking about a healing household.
Of course, you can see where therapeia comes from. We get the word “therapeutic,” to heal. Really, as mothers, we are healing therapists. We shouldn’t have to be going off to counselors. We should be healing therapists ourselves, healing therapists to our husbands, and healing therapists to our children.
This same word, the noun, actually, is used in times where it spoke of Jesus healing.
Luke 9:11: Jesus “spake unto them of the kingdom of God, and healed them that had need of healing.” Yes, whatever need of healing they had; it may have been physical healing, mental healing, emotional healing. But Jesus healed all those “that had need of healing.”
Matthew 9:35: “And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.”
Luke 4:40: “Now when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick with diverse diseases brought them unto Him; and He laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them.”
God wants our homes to be healing homes. Healing for the body, healing for the soul, healing for the mind; just bringing healing, because every one of us are all facing things. We face issues and we face relationships. There are often hurts, and this and that. Therefore, there is always a need for healing.
Let me give you some Scriptures.
Proverbs 13:17: “A faithful ambassador is health.”
Proverbs 7:22 in the Good News Bible says: “Being cheerful keeps you healthy. It is slow death to be gloomy all the time.” I love that Scripture. You want to be healthy? Well, keep cheerful! It’s “slow death to be gloomy all the time.”
Proverbs 15:4: “Speech that heals is like a life-giving tree.”
Proverbs 10:21: “The lips of the righteous nourish many.”
Proverbs 12:18: “Some people make cutting remarks, but the words of the wise bring healing.” So, dear wives and mothers, may you have healing words pouring out of your mouth.
No. 17. INSPIRING WORDS
No. 18. JOYFUL WORDS
Philippians 4:4: “Rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say, rejoice!” We don’t rejoice just when everything’s going great. We learn to rejoice and be happy and cheerful and speak these kinds of words, even when things aren’t going well. Our circumstances do not determine the attitude of our heart. We are not determined by our feelings. We’re not determined by our circumstances, but the attitude of our heart and the acknowledgement that Christ dwells within us.
Colossians 1:27: “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” This is what our salvation is all about. We’re not just saved from sin and ready to go to heaven. No! Jesus died to save us from our sin, but He also died to come and indwell us by His life-giving Spirit. He wants to dwell in us.
When He comes to dwell, He comes in with who He is, His life, which is filled with joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, and all the beautiful fruits of the Holy Spirit who is in us. We do not live by circumstances, by feelings, by anything like that. We live by the truth of “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
No. 19. KIND WORDS
The above rubies woman in Proverbs 31:26 says: “She opens her mouth with wisdom, and in her tongue is the law of kindness.”
Proverbs 15:4: “Kind words bring life, but cruel words crush the spirit.”
Proverbs 16:24, The New Living Translation: “Kind words are like honey; sweet to the soul and healthy for the body.”
No. 20. LIFE-GIVING WORDS
Dear ladies, we are life-givers. This is who God created us to be. Adam called his wife “Eve,” because she was the mother of all living. The word “Eve” is Chavah and means “life-giver.” This is who we are. God created us to bring forth life.
We are the most blessed of all people. We are so blessed to belong to His female creation and have the privilege to bring forth life from our womb! A life which is an eternal soul, a life that is not only here for this life, but a life that will live forever!
Dear ladies, how is it that satan deceives women to not embrace their glorious role of being life-givers? There is nothing more incredible in the whole of the earth than to give life, to bring forth a life that is eternal, and that will live forever and ever! It is incredible! That’s who we are. We bring forth life.
Then from our breasts we nourish a baby with life. We give life from our very breasts, to cause this baby to grow and develop. That is amazing!
We should continue to be life-givers as we raise our children. We raise them on life-giving foods. We’re not going to be giving them dead food. We throw out of our pantries all the white sugar, and white flour, and white pasta, and white junk. No, we’re those who give life-giving foods to our families.
And, of course, we’re going to speak life-giving words, because that’s who we are. We’re life-givers! Be reminded who you are, dear ladies. You are a life-giver in your home.
You all know that Scripture in Proverbs 18:28: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.” Every time you open your mouth, you’re usually speaking life, or you’re speaking death. Make sure it is life.
Proverbs 10:11: “The mouth of the righteous is a well of life.”
The New Living Translation says: “The words of the godly are a life-giving fountain.”
Jesus said in John 6:63: “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” Yes, amen! Be a life-giver.
No. 21. LOVING WORDS
Are you constantly reminding your husband that you love him? Do you say, “I love you,” not just once a day, but more than once a day? Make it a habit of your life to constantly remind him of your love. Never let a day go by without saying, “I love you.”
Maybe, if you haven’t said those words for a while, maybe you feel kind of embarrassed to say them again. Well, you must say them. You must get up that courage to say them. You must, even if you don’t feel like it. Say them by faith because words have such power.
Sometimes you may not feel in love with your husband. It’s nothing to do with feelings. No, it’s by faith. You just say, “I love you.” Because when you say the words, then feelings begin to happen. You don’t wait for the feelings. You speak out first.
No. 22. MERCIFUL WORDS
No. 23. NURTURING WORDS
Of course, that’s part of our whole mothering, isn’t it? We’re created to be mothers, not only physically, but innately. It is natural for us to speak nurturing words. Oh, isn’t it so sad to be in a supermarket and hear a mother scream at her children? It is so grating on the nerves. It’s the opposite of what should be coming of out the mouth of the mother which should be nurturing words.
No. 24. PEACEMAKING WORDS
Wow, we sure have to do a bit of that in our homes, don’t we?
Matthew 5:9: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.”
Romans 14:19: “Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and the things wherewith we may edify” or build up “one another.”
No. 25. POSITIVE WORDS
Oh, do you build your home with positive words? Get rid of the negatives. They only bring destruction. Positive words bring joy and life.
No. 26. PLEASANT WORDS
I love this Scripture. I memorized it as a young teen, and I love to say it: “Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.” Oh, yes. Fill your home with these pleasant words.
The walls of your home hear the words. They get filled up with the words that are spoken in your home, and it affects the whole atmosphere. If your home is filled with pleasant words, the atmosphere is going to be pleasant. As you speak pleasant words, your children will begin to speak pleasant words. When you hear your children speaking these nasty words, wow! Where did they get those from? They should be copying you.
Proverbs 15:26: “The words of the pure are pleasant words.”
No. 27. RECONCILNG WORDS
Sometimes you may get out of sorts with your husband or someone in your family. Well, we have to bring in the reconciling words. We can’t let things go unreconciled.
No. 28. RESPECTFUL WORDS
Dear ladies, I think this is perhaps the number one most important factor in our words, especially in our marriage relationship. Men are desperate for wanting respect, wanting reverence. They were born to receive it. When they don’t get it, they will never be the men that they’re meant to be. They’ll never be the husband that you want them to be. Men absolutely recoil when they’re not respected.
I think this has perhaps been one of my greatest challenges. I have always loved my husband and we have had the most glorious marriage of over 60 years. I think our marriage gets more glorious all the time. But I do have to confess, as I look back, there have been times, when even though I loved my husband, I didn’t respect him and revere him truly as I should.
I had to confess so much to the Lord, because we can say we love them, but husbands want more than love. They want respect. If you feel that your husband is really not toeing the line as you would like him to, you feel things aren’t what they should be, maybe it’s because he’s not feeling or getting that respect from you. Do you think you could think about this? Think how you could show him more respect, how that when you speak to him, you can show him respect.
I think my biggest guilt has been in trying to always make my husband eat the right things because he’s just a man. He loves to eat all the junk food. Of course, that really upsets me because I want to keep him healthy, because I want to keep him forever.
But then, I have often gone about it the wrong way. I tried to tell him what to do, and what he should eat, and what he shouldn’t eat. Does that help? Never ever, ever, ever. No! Because he is a man. Men are not going to be told what to do by their wives, unless he’s some kind of wimp, and he won’t be a happy wimp, either! Because men do not want to be told what to do.
Oh, I remember a terrible thing that happened. Oh, do I have to confess my sins? Well, this was way back in New Zealand days when we were raising our young family. Every year we would go for family holiday. We’d take all our extended family plus families in the church with us. We could never go for a holiday on our own. We’d end up with about 50 families, sometimes 100 families would come with us. It was always so amazing.
But I remember one time, we were packing to go. We were going up to Pauanui, one of our favorite places to go. The children decided, “Oh, can we take the TV, Dad?” I said, “No!” And I started to lay down the law. “No! We will NOT take that TV! We’re not going to have a TV on our holiday! That is disgusting! No!”
And my husband saw me laying down the law and I was telling everybody what they should do. He could not take it! So, he said, “Yes, we WILL take the TV!” We had packed the whole car. We had to take everything out. They had to repack the whole thing to fit in that TV, all because I said we were NOT going to take it!
Well, the funny thing was, we got up there, and, of course, nobody ever even touched the TV! There was too much fun just being with everybody on the beach, water skiing, doing everything they loved to do. And no one even thought of the TV.
But it was the principle. It is within men. They do not want to be told what to do by a woman. A lot of women think men should be told what to do but they don’t understand and maybe they’ll try to do that. But they will not get the best out of their marriage.
Many men are turned off because they haven’t been respected. They’ve been nagged at, and told what to do by their wives, until, really, they just can’t stand it. Maybe they put up with it. Maybe sometimes they’ll just leave. But we’ve got to change because a man has to receive respectful words.
I’m just thinking now, I wonder if I can just look it up. In the Amplified Version of Ephesians 5, it brings a wonderful message. Ephesians 5:33: “However, let each man of you without exception love his wife as being in a sense his very own self; and let the wife see that she respects and reverences her husband, that she notices him, regards him, honors him, prefers him, venerates, and esteems him; and that she defers to him, praises him, and loves and admires him exceedingly.”
Wow! There’s a challenge for us, isn’t it? Yes. So, let’s speak respectful words. Let’s see if you can talk to your husband without even telling him what to do, giving him a chance to be the man God created him to be. Amen.
No. 29. THE “RE-” WORDS
Here are some “re-” words that I think are very important. Reviving, revitalizing, refreshing, repairing, re-energizing, rekindling, reclaiming, reinforcing, restoring, rebuilding, replenishing, re-creating, redeeming, rejoicing. Wow! Those are some great “re-” words to also put in your vocab in your home as you’re building your marriage and family.
No. 30. RIGHT TIMING WORDS
Oh, that is an amazing thing. Sometimes we have to wait for the right time. Do you know this? I’m sure you’ve found this. In your marriage, and even with your children, there’s always a right time. Sometimes we’ve got to seek the Lord. We maybe know what we have to say, but you just can’t say it any old time. You’ve got to know the right time to say it.
The Bible talks about this. Proverbs 15:23: “Everyone enjoys a fitting reply. It is wonderful to say the right thing at the right time.”
Proverbs 25:11: “Timely advice is lovely, like golden apples in a silver basket.” Many times, we can’t just blurt out what we want to say. We’ve got to wait until it’s the right time, the right time for the person to receive. And the right time that our attitude is right, too. We have to have our attitude right, and then it has to be the right time to speak.
No. 31. SUPPORTIVE WORDS
No. 32. SOFT WORDS
Proverbs 25:15: “By long forbearing is a prince persuaded, and a soft tongue breaks the bones.” Sometimes we think, “Wow, my right words, and getting everybody into place, they’ll do the trick!” But no. It’s soft words. Sometimes there’s hardness and we wonder how we’ll get through. Well, it won’t be with hard and harsh words. It will be with soft words. Soft words break the bones.
Proverbs 15:1: “A soft answer turns away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger.” Did you get that? “A soft answer turns away wrath.” Turns away anger. Can you get into that habit, dear lovely wives? Just a soft answer. Maybe your husband is giving you a harsh word, but just answer with a soft answer. It has such power.
No. 33. SOOTHING WORDS
Proverbs 15:4: “A soothing tongue is a tree of life, but when it twists things, it breaks the spirit.”
No. 34. STRENGTHENING WORDS
No. 35. TENDER WORDS
No. 36. THANKFUL WORDS
Oh, do you have a thankful heart? Are you always saying, “Thank you”? I believe “Thank you” should be a big part of our vocabulary. Remember to thank your husband. Don’t just take him for granted. Thank him for the things that he does for you.
Thank him that he takes out the garbage. Well, if he doesn’t, don’t complain, but if he does, thank him. Thank him when he mows the lawn. Thank him when he does any little thing. Thank him when he helps you with the dishes. Thank him when he helps you with putting the children to bed. Oh, always have a thankful spirit towards your husband. Not just, “Oh, thanks,” but no! A real “Thank you! Thank you soooo much! I soooo appreciate it.”
And towards your children, when they do a job, when they do their chores, thank them! Don’t just take it for granted. No, thank them! Have a thankful spirit so it’s in your family. Then it becomes part of your life to thank others. You’re thanking them when you think of things that they may do, or whatever. Get a thankful spirit. Thankful words are so important.
No. 37. UPLIFTING WORDS
No. 38. WHOLESOME WORDS
Proverbs 15:4: “A wholesome tongue is a tree of life.”
1 Timothy 6:3-4: “If any man . . . consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; he is proud, knowing nothing.”
Wholesome words should be part of our lives, and part of our children’s lives.
No. 39. WISE WORDS
Oh, that’s so important. Here are a few Scriptures for you about this one.
Proverbs 31:26: “She openeth her mouth with wisdom.” That’s the valiant woman of Proverbs 31.
Proverbs 10:13: “Wise words come from the lips of people with understanding.”
Proverbs 10:31: “The mouth of the just brings forth wisdom.”
Proverbs 12:18: “The words of the wise bring healing.”
Proverbs 18:4: “Wise words are like deep waters. Wisdom flows from the wise like a bubbling brook.”
Proverbs 10:19: “In the multitude of words, there wanteth not sin, but he that refraineth his lips is wise.” That’s a Scripture that I have memorized and a Scripture that I constantly have to think about. Oh, ladies, it is so true. “In the multitude of words, there wanteth not sin.”
In other words, when you’re hanging out, you’re just babbling on, talking, talking, talking, usually you’ll end up saying something that is wrong. You may start talking about someone, gossiping about someone, saying something negative about someone. It just happens in loads and loads of conversation.
We do have to watch carefully, even when we get together with friends. Just watch. Remember, “In the multitude of words,” the more words you speak, the more likely it is to sin. But what does it say? “He that refraineth his lips is wise.” We have to have that wisdom upon us. Be careful what you say. It’s so easy to get pulled in.
I have found, when someone says something negative about someone, you could think of something negative yourself. My, you might even say it! And that puts the nail in the coffin even more. When people do that, even about something, there’s a negative thing. One person says a negative, and people add to that negative.
And yet the opposite can happen. I have tried this out. When you say something positive about a thing, or organization, or a person, and you say that thing, it’s amazing how someone else will add a positive too! So, the conversation becomes positive. Try that out.
My, if you see it going down the negative path, get a positive word in, because it’s amazing how we can steer conversation. Sometimes we have to even shut our mouths altogether.
Proverbs 17:27: “He that hath knowledge spareth his words, and a man of understanding is of an excellent spirit.”
No. 40. NO WORDS
This is the last one I’m giving you, ladies. I’m sure there are so many more. But this one is NO WORDS because sometimes we have to shut our mouths! I think of the example of Jesus, when He was standing before Pilate, and Pilate said to Jesus, in Matthew 27:13-14: “Hearest thou not how many things they witness against Thee? And He answered him never a word; insomuch that the governor marveled greatly.” Here they were, saying all these lies about Jesus. He didn’t even stand up for Himself. He did not even open His mouth. He answered not a word.
Sometimes we can give a soft answer, but there are times when, if we can’t give a soft answer, don’t give an answer at all. Don’t say anything.
1 Peter 2:23, talking about Jesus: “Who, when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not; but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously.”
So, dear ladies, there are words for you to think about. I hope you can go over these last two podcasts again and let the Holy Spirit touch your heart. Don’t forget to tell other ladies about these podcasts. Share them with your friends. Share them with others, so they, too, can be blessed and encouraged.
“Dear Father, I bring before You all those who are listening. Every wife, every mother, every daughter, I pray that You will bless them. I pray that You will fill them, Lord, with loving words, sweet words, positive words, pleasant words, cheerful words, healing words, soft words. Oh, dear Father, and sometimes, even no words.
“Give them wisdom. I pray, Lord, that You will give them, oh, such a heart of nurturing and love to speak loving words into their homes, and that, Lord, this will begin to become the pattern of their whole family. All will be speaking these beautiful words, Lord God. We ask these things in the Name of Jesus. Amen.”
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
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Transcribed by Darlene Norris * This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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