Caution

By now we’ve talked about three different words that I’ve either cut out or limited in my vocabulary. These are words that carry meaning, words that have weight to them, weight many people choose to ignore. The last of them is no different.

Care

In the Bible, God says to cast all our cares upon Him. And that’s the basis of my decision to cut this word out of my speech. This is actually the word that I’m most working on right now, the one I’m working hard to completely cut out. It’s a word that I would rather not say, but it’s one that gets said by many people, much of the time.

Thing is, if God wants us to cast our cares on Him, then we shouldn’t care about anything down here. That starts, for me, by cutting it from my vocabulary.

It means I try not to say things like “I’ll take care of it,” or “I care for you,” or even "be careful," and change the word for something more appropriate. I now say “I can do that,” “I love you,” or "be cautious," rather than the former sentences.

Maybe that seems a bit much for some of you, and so I’ll repeat something I’ve told you earlier in this series:

Words carry power. 

They carry far more weight than we tend to attribute to them. You have what you say you have, and you don’t have what you say you don’t have. Speaking can give either life or death to anything. With our words we can either build up the people and things around us, or we can break them down.

Remember Proverbs 18:21?

“The tongue can bring death or life; those who love to talk will reap the consequences.”(NLT)

How about Deuteronomy 30:19?

“Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!" (NLT)

We have the choice to either build up or destroy with our words.

Choose wisely. He already told us which one to pick. 

For me, wisdom said to cut care out of my vocabulary. Maybe that's not what wisdom says to you, but I know words better than a lot of people. I'm a writer by trade, so you can't deny that. And I know how much power they really have, and how they influence people and things. I've seen it, I've lived it, and for me, this is the right thing to do. 

[love]

{Rani Divine}