Patience can persuade a prince, and soft speech can crush strong opposition. Proverbs 25:15, New Living Translation
At those times it seems like your words bounce off your children and fall to the ground…be encouraged. God desires our words to have impact in our children’s lives; so much so they can break a bone. The femur is the largest bone in the body and it takes brute force (car accident or high fall) to break it. How can gentle words break through even the largest resistant bone or…a stubborn heart? It depends on whose words they are and how they’re delivered. If I’m speaking my mind or speaking out of frustration nothing good will come of it. In Paul’s letter to the Colossians he asked the Lord to open for him a “door of utterance” where the Holy Spirit would give him the words to say that would impact the hearer to glory of God.
It’s those anointed or weighty words that transform. Kind words of spirit and life WILL eventually accomplish what the Lord sent it through us to do. I just need patience and confidence that no amount of resistance can withstand the weight of anointed words. Now I’m the first to admit the patience part is where my train derails! If I don’t see change “fast enough” I resort to a harsh tone and strong words to get “results” and that’s ALWAYS a mess. Thank God He’s still at work in me! I get how hard it is to watch your child carry on as usual as if you said something meaningless but our strength is in our quiet confidence in His weighty words, not in our flesh.
Lord, I cannot but You can! Fill my mouth with powerful, yet gentle words that penetrate the most stubborn of hearts and take root in my children until they accomplish what you intended. I also need your supply of patience in the meantime. I thank You for these now in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Colossians 3: 4, KJV
John 6: 63
Isaiah 55:11
© Vanessa A. Harris and The Legacy of Faith, 2013.
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