Speaking Words

Growing up my mom always said “watch what you say because words have meaning and power.” She also often warned about speaking things into being. I am pretty sure I have genetic arthritis but doctors have told me that even though I have the symptoms they can not diagnose me until it shows up in my bloodstream. And that does not usually happen until later on in life so i just have to live with it. Whenever my mother hears me say that I have genetic arthritis she says “stop saying that. You are just speaking into being” She based it off of biblical teachings such as Proverbs 18:21 which tells us that life and death are in the power of the tongue. Other people would say keep positive thinking or send positive energy. 

The other day I was listening to a podcast called “no such thing as a fish”. It is a weekly podcast where each member gives a fact that they think is interesting. Then they discuss the topics of each fact and have fun adding other facts similar to the original fact. I love learning new things, if you do as well you should check it out. In this episode they talked about some facts that I think show that speaking things into being and words having power is a universal thought process shared by all cultures. 

One of the facts was that there is a special language in Papua New Guinea that is only used when gathering nuts. It is called pandanus language and it is an elaborate avoidance language. Basically some words are thought to be unhealthy for the plants, because these words could cause bad growth of the nuts. In English these words could be; wither, rot, polluted, decaying… ect. So this culture created a vocabulary of up to a thousand words and phrases to replace the taboo vocabulary. The new vocabulary focuses on words to give positivity to the harvest and continued growth to the trees. It is believed that if you use this language outside of the harvesting area that mountain spirits will come down and cause problems with the trees and nuts. 

Another fact that the podcast shared was that In the middle ages the word Bear was taboo because they thought speaking the word bear brought the wrath of bears upon you and your family. So most people at that time called bears “The brown one” or “the hairy one” 

I have seen words and prayer make things happen. When I went to Guatemala On a mission trip we went to a village up in the mountains. When we were getting a tour of the village we were told that they had been in a drought for years. So the group and I spread out through this soccer field, with caked mud as the field, and began to pray and worship. After about 30 minutes of this, we started seeing the rain coming over the mountains. Soon it was a downpour. It was one of the first times that I saw the power of prayer, words or positive thinking.

Even if you do not believe in prayer there is something to say about trying your best to stay positive and don't say hurtful or negative things to yourself or others. It only can cause harm. I don't think I have ever heard of native words helping anything. So stay Positive people. I will keep trying to say I don't have genetic arthritis or at least I am thinking positive thoughts…