“The power of the tongue!”
By Ron Daniel
It was the wisest man who ever lived, King Solomon who in Proverbs 18:21 wrote “Death and life is in the power of the tongue.” This wise saying is further ossified by a well known concept is psychological circles called “self-fulfilling prophecy” which says if you keep saying something to someone, after a while the person believes it or starts to act like what you said. In this article I intend to show how woeful we treat ourselves and others with our tongue as well as make suggestions for how we use it.
There are certain things I certainly don’t practice saying. For instance, it is common practice when someone asks you how you are doing to say something like “I here tekking me knock-bout” or “I not too bad”. The more you repeat this, is the more “knock-bout” you will inevitably get. The more you say you “not too bad” means you will never get too good. When I asked Mr Carbon at CSS the other day how he was doing he replied “much better than you”. My dad used to always say “I keep trying”. Your response will more than likely define how you approach your day and just how your day will end up. Your tongue has lots of power. Use it to speak positive over your own life.
According to the March 6th story ran in the Barbados Nation, Grenada has just passed legislation under the Status of Children bill. This bill has provisions to “stop the use of discriminatory words such as illegitimate, unlawful and bastard when referring to children out of wedlock.” I would want to suggest to my good uncle Hensley that he get a copy of this act and fashion it for Nevis. I hate it when people refer to others as bastards or think they automatically are better than others who were born outside of marriage. If we do a careful search, then the bastards among us include men like our beloved Premier, the Honourable Jospeh Parry, the sagacious Attorney General Mr. Patrice Nisbett, the Honourable Mark Brantley and the incomparable Mr. Deon Daniel to name a few. Does anyone of us think we are any better than these powerful men who are leaders in their various fields of endeavour? One young lady had the audacity to ask me the other day, “Do I look like a bastard child?” I want to know how the men mentioned above look. However we have used words like this to stymie the development of our very own people in our quest to make ourselves look good. We need to disabuse that scornful notion and realize that all men are created equal. If it means that we have to pass legislation for it to happen like Grenada then let us do so.
Parents also have a role to play with their tongue. They are often the ones who say things like “he bad just like he no good father” or “why you cant be like you friend” or “you are an embarrassment to me.” The most disgusting aspect about these statements is that these are not one off statements but statements that are repeated time and time again. They have been told that they should have been aborted or that they wish somebody would buy them or that they have ruined their life. The old saying that sticks and stones can break my bones but words can never hurt me is a lie from the pit of hell. These kind of comments sometimes do irreparable damage to a child’s development. Children grow up with this heavy psychological burden of negativity placed on them by the very same people who brought them into the world. The tongue according to James 3:8 is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison and how we use it will determine just how far our own children go in life.
As we celebrate the lenten period, let us use the tongue to inspire as opposed to tear down. For instance, every time I see Mr. Colin Tyrell, he calls me “Mr. Millionaire.” I am most grateful for that because I continue to believe the more he says it, the more likely it is to happen and I always thank him for his good wishes towards me. We need more people who would go around speaking positives into the lives of our neighbours, family members and fellow-men. I have never seen a successful person who has made it in life by calling down others and referring to them in derogatory terms. Let us as a society come closer to espousing the values of love over grudge, goodwill over bad mind and positivity over negativity. Let us use our tongues wisely.
