Some Sweet Talking Girl

Do you use positive powerful words?

How do the things I say effect me and those around me

 

So if you have been following my blog for a while then you know that it is important it is that  Activity night go along with what is being taught on Sunday (the Sunday before or after which ever works best to drive the point and be able to discuss). 
 In the above lesson it says:

• A few days in advance, invite the young women to bring to class a favorite inspirational quotation. Ask each young woman to share her quotation and explain the influence it has had on her life. Invite the class to find examples in the scriptures that illustrate the powerful positive influence our words can have on others (for example, Captain Moroni and the title of liberty [see Alma 46:11–22], the Savior and the woman taken in adultery [see John 8:1–11], or Abinadi and Alma [see Alma 5:9–12]). What do these examples teach the young women about the power their words can have on others?

This alone is a wonderful activity and we did this during our weekday activity but added a few additional activities- to show how positive powerful words stay in our heads:

We gave out this paper to see who could finish the sayings- it was fun and really emphasized how words get stuck in your head- even if you had learned/heard them along time ago half the time you don’t even realize that they are still up there.

Then we gave everyone a small travel size tube of toothpaste and a paper plate.  We told everyone to squeeze as much or as little of toothpaste out onto the paper plate.

After they were all finished we asked them to put all the toothpaste back into the tube.  This was very messy but also very interesting- each girl was different, some tried to put it back in and realized how hard it was so they stopped, but we had a few girls who became very intent on figuring a way to put as much back in as possible.  We talked about how the toothpaste is like the words we say or wright and it is very hard to put/take back, we talked about President Hollands Talk “The Tongue of Angels” and how words can be hurtful even destructive.  We also talked about how this works with our positive words as well.

“it is with this realization of the power and sanctity of words that I wish to caution us, if caution is needed, regarding how we speak to each other and how we speak of ourselves.I

Well, that is pretty straightforward! Obviously James doesn’t mean our tongues are always iniquitous, nor that everything we say is “full of deadly poison.” But he clearly means that at least some things we say can be destructive, even venomous

Given the damage that can be done with our tongues, little wonder the Savior said, “Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.

A husband who would never dream of striking his wife physically can break, if not her bones, then certainly her heart by the brutality of thoughtless or unkind speech. 

 Today, I speak against verbal and emotional abuse of anyone against anyone

In all of this, I suppose it goes without saying that negative speaking so often flows from negative thinking, including negative thinking about ourselves. We see our own faults, we speak—or at least think—critically of ourselves, and before long that is how we see everyone and everything. No sunshine, no roses, no promise of hope or happiness. Before long we and everybody around us are miserable.”

Speak encouragingly, including about yourself. 
Elder Holland
In Elder Zwick Talk What are you Thinking  he says

Children sometimes speak to beloved parents with tongues as sharp as blades. Spouses, who have shared some of life’s richest and most tender experiences, lose vision and patience with each other and raise their voices. All of us, though covenant children of a loving Heavenly Father, have regretted jumping headlong from the high seat of self-righteous judgment and have spoken with abrasive words before we understood a situation from another’s perspective. We have all had the opportunity to learn how destructive words can take a situation from hazardous to fatal.

It is so important to understand how destructive words written or spoken can be to those around us.

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