The Power of Words

Words have power – to build up or tear down.  What choices am I making – in what I take in and what I give out?

I became aware of how I would feel after reading some comments people would write after an article that was posted online.  I was amazed at how vile people could be – maybe because they could do it anonymously?  I decided I would stop at the end of the article and not scroll to the comments section.

It made me think about how after an event or project I was responsible for, a dozen people could say something nice about it, but often times it is the one negative comment that stuck with me.

In a daily reflection book I read every morning was the following quote:  “Words of love and affirmation are like bread.  We need them each day, over and over.  They keep us alive inside.”  - Henri Nouwen

I also read about an experiment done by Dr. Masaru Emoto (he is featured in the movie “What the Bleep Do We Know”).  In this experiment, Dr Emoto placed portions of cooked rice into two containers. On one container he wrote "thank you" and on the other "you fool". He then instructed school children to say the labels on the jars out loud everyday when they passed them by. After 30 days, the rice in the container with positive thoughts had barely changed, while the other was moldy and rotten.

Sometimes our LMH question the “effectiveness” of their service.  Did they make a difference?  Has anything changed because of their presence?

Alicia Johnson, one of our Veteran LMH, who served in Cameroon with her husband Chris and sons Keaton & Quinn, wrote to us about how she had started something positive in her classroom.  She would have the students compliment the student who sat in front/behind of him/her – she did this row by row each week.  They were not used to giving compliments, but over time, she saw the difference this made to the students.

This is just one example of the difference our LMH are making.  And it is a difference we can make as well.  A kind word to someone, a word of affirmation, and positive thoughts towards others and ourselves can go a long way in making a difference in this world.  Building up people rather than structures is what LMH is about.

To read about how our current LMH are doing this, check out their blogs on our website:  www.laymissionhelpers.org