The Power of Words (Prompt 19/21)

 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning. John 1:1-2

 

“Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen and expand our sense of life: they feed the soul. When writers make us shake our heads with the exactness of their prose and their truths, and even make us laugh about ourselves or life, our buoyancy is restored. We are given a shot at dancing with, or at least clapping along with, the absurdity of life, instead of being squashed by it over and over again. It’s like singing on a boat during a terrible storm at sea. You can’t stop the raging storm, but singing can change the hearts and spirits of the people who are together on that ship.”  Anne Lamott

 

Can you believe the 21 Days of Journaling in July is almost finished for 2016? But remember you can get the downloadable PDF for free through the end of this month! Stay tuned for inspiring things here on the blog! Meanwhile, our prompt for today is words. I’ve added some potent quotes at the end of this post, so do NOT miss those!

Happy Journaling!

 

Words. We love them, we hate them. We live by them. The fact is they are powerful. The Bible says they are living and active. Maybe it’s one of the reasons Jesus said that even the words we think, are dangerous. Because words we think become words we say, and even unspoken words hold power over us. It’s why we are instructed to be careful what we ponder, and also to be careful what we allow ourselves to say. Ecclesiastes says, ” Let your words be few…” And we are told we will give an account for every word we speak. Yikes. As we ponder the power of words, let’s look at some of our favorite quotes, scripture and passages of writing.

 

*Scroll to the end for some amazing quotes to ponder!

 

Take a Favorite Bible Verse or Quote and write about the importance of it on your thinking, your philosophy of life, your outlook etc. 

OR

Choose a specific theme or topic and use your journal to record quotes and/or scripture that are meaningful to you. If you’re feeling creative, use your colored pens, or decorate as seems good to you.

OR

Make a list of your top ten (twenty, thirty…etc.) favorite quotes. Or you could just pick a theme and seek quotes to do with that subject. I do this with Google fairly frequently!

OR

Open your Dictionary randomly and discover some new words (maybe). Write using 10-20  of the words you find on the first two pages you open to.

I’ve added some quotes for Our Journaling in July journey…Springboard, as you wish, off of any of these though provoking statements: 

The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone. ~Harriet Beecher Stowe

Be not a slave of words.~Thomas Carlyle

A politician’s words reveal less about what he thinks about his subject than what he thinks about his audience.~George Will

Words are but the vague shadows of the volumes we mean. Little audible links, they are, chaining together great inaudible feelings and purposes.~Theodore Dreiser

If you wouldn’t write it and sign it, don’t say it. ~Earl Wilson

Without words, without writing and without books there would be no history, there could be no concept of humanity. ~Hermann Hesse

Word Lovers, write away!

 

Happy Journaling!