Use Your Words| Part 1 of 3
(This post is the first in a three-part series. Click to read part two and part three.)
My two-year-old daughter is learning to use her words. At the kitchen table after dinner recently, her older brother pointed to objects around the room and she named them to the best of her ability. We saw the light bulb turning on and her pure pleasure at the game.
Big brother pointed to the glass pitcher in the center of the table
and she murmured, “Water!”
He affirmed her answer and then pointed to the lamp. She
smiled and said, “Light!”
She named her bowl and her spoon.
She named each of us, and then she started naming her body
parts.
Despite her rapidly expanding vocabulary, sometimes her
emotions take over and a tantrum follows. In those moments, I remind her to use her words.
“What do you want? Do you need something? Tell me.”
Sometimes she points to a bumped elbow and I kiss it. She
tells me she wants juice, and we find a cup and fill it. Or, she requests another
lollipop and I say no. Growing communication expands our understanding
of one another, but it doesn’t mean that she always gets what she wants.
As I ask my daughter to use her words, I’ve been hearing God
speak to my heart too, “Use your words.”
Use your words to speak truth in love.[1]
Use your words to encourage and build up others.[2]
Use your words to speak about whatever is true, honorable,
just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent and worthy of praise.[3]
James also reminds me that “no human being can tame the
tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord
and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God”
(James 3:8-9). Use your words wisely.
God used words to speak the universe into existence, and as
we reflect his image to our closest neighbors and a broader world, we’re given
the same privilege to use our words.
For more about Katie's book, Loving My Children, click here.
Email Katie at lovingmychildrenbook@gmail.com.