GetWisdom PaperturnSampler FINAL SinglePages - Flipbook - Page 78
toward relational restoration—we must speak words that give life. (Of course, Erik and I would
roll our eyes and say lame or backhanded compliments along the lines of, “I like your hair,” “Your
face looks less stupid when you smile,” which of course thrilled our parents.)
Whenever I think of speaking life over someone, I immediately think of Donald Miller’s book
Scary Close. As Donald struggled through broken relationship after broken relationship, his friend
Bob Goff chose to love him well through his words:
“You don’t sound fine,” Bob said.
I’d have argued with him, but I was afraid he’d notice I was slurring my words.
“You know what I’ve noticed about you, Don?” Bob said.
“What’s that, Bob?”
“I’ve noticed you’re good at relationships.”
I said nothing. I wasn’t sure I understood him correctly. Then he said it again, right into
the silence of the phone.
“You’re good at relationships, Don,” he repeated.
The truth is I hadn’t cried since I’d broken off the engagement. Like I said, I’d gone
numb. But as he said those absurd words, something in me began to feel again and all the
pain of the season swelled up. I pulled the phone from my ear, dropped my head on the
desk, and wept. And as I cried, Bob kept repeating, “Don, you’re good at relationships.
You’re still good at them. You’ve always been good at them.”xiv
That’s the kind of mom, wife, friend I’d like to be. In our divided culture, too often we find
ourselves retreating to angry, defensive words—and we forget about the transformative power of
loving, life-giving words.
In what practical ways can you speak life into someone today?
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Let’s be women who speak good and beautiful things over one another, who choose words of
life instead of words of death. Because when we speak life, we help one another live a life that
really matters.
Ask God to meet you in the places of your heart where someone has spoken words of death and
pain. He brings life to our most wounded places.
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