By WALLY AMOS
The Power In Words
In
my book, “The Power In You: Ten
Secret Ingredients for Inner Strength,” I write about the power in our
words. I talk about “plus” words, words that encourage and “minus”
words, words that destroy. In order to succeed we need plus words. Words,
whether spoken to you or by others, are powerful and can make or break a person.
Recently, someone sent me the following story that is a strong case for giving
positive support.
“A
group of frogs were traveling through the woods, and two of them fell into a
deep pit. All the other frogs gathered around the pit. When they saw how deep
the pit was, they told the unfortunate frogs they would never get out. The two
frogs ignored the comments and tried to jump up out of the pit.
“The
other frogs kept telling them to stop, that they were as good as dead. Finally,
one of the frogs took heed to what the other frogs were saying and simply gave
up. He fell down and died.
“The
other frog continued to jump as hard as he could. Once again, the crowd of frogs
yelled at him to stop the pain and suffering and just die. He jumped even harder
and finally made it out. When he got out, the other frogs asked him, “Why did
you continue jumping? Didn’t you hear us?
“The
frog explained to them that he was deaf. He thought they were encouraging him
the entire time.”
There
is power of life and death in the tongue. An encouraging word to someone who is
down can lift them up and help them make it through the day. A destructive word
to someone who is down can cause his or her death. Be careful of what you say
and remember, that like sugar that has dissolved in water, once our words leave
our mouth they cannot be returned. Speak plus words.