22/02/2024
For the month of February, our devotional series is focusing on God’s love as it relates to the “5 Love Languages” by Gary Chapman. Within each of these love languages, we can explore how God loves us in that way, how we reciprocate our love to God, how we can show that type of love to others, and check in to make sure we are also loving ourselves.
Today we will focus on words of affirmation. “When words of affirmation is your love language, words build you up. You thrive on spoken affection, praise, encouragement, and compliments. Harsh words and criticism can bother you for a long time.”
Kind Words to Self
Our internal dialogue can hugely affect the direction our lives go. Atomic Habits author James Clear explains it this way: “The questions you ask yourself will largely determine the answers you get. "Why am I not successful?" You'll get answers that berate you. "How can I succeed here?" You'll get answers that push you. Be deliberate in the questions you ask yourself."
Several years ago, I learned the importance of speaking kindly to myself as I battled anxiety. Those unkind things that we say to ourselves build up over time and can manifest in physical ways through our health. Solomon, known for his wisdom, taught that, “Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.” Last week we learned that our bodies are a gift from God, so let’s take care of our minds, hearts, and bodies by saying kind words to ourselves.
Kind Words to Others
My aviation friend and author, Angelia Griffin, frequently reminds her readers to F.L.Y. or “First Love Yourself”. When an airplane has trouble and oxygen masks drop, the flight attendants tell us to put the mask on ourselves first before helping those around us. If we take time to help others first, our oxygen will be depleted and then both people will be in trouble. Similarly, if we don’t love ourselves well, how can we expect to love others well?
We touched on this last week as we saw Jesus add clarification to an existing commandment. Rather than “Love your neighbor as yourself,” Jesus taught us to “Love others as I have loved you.” This was a clear message from Jesus and the early church: that we should love others with both our words and actions. “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” (Eph 4:29) “Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.” (Col4:6) “Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.” (1 Thess 5:11)
I love the way Paul explains the importance of showing love with words: “If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” (1 cor 13:1)
Words of Praise to God
We cannot forget the ability to speak, connect, and love others is a gift given from God. As such, we should perpetually offer him thanks and praise for all that he has given us: our lives and bodies, connection with others, and most importantly his Son.
I am always inspired by the Psalms, many of which were written by King David. David was a busy guy. As a young boy he was in charge of herds of sheep, frequently fighting off predators like lions and bears, and tending to the needs of his older brothers. As he got older he worked for the king, then fled for his life as the king pursued him to kill him. And even once he was king, he was constantly fighting battles with neighboring kingdoms and dealing with family drama. And yet, he still found plenty of time to praise God with his words, and thankfully recorded them to inspire future generations to do the same.
Let’s take a page from David’s playbook and make this our prayer today: “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” (Psalm 19:14)
