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Lessons From My Hope Chest: Oh My Word!



Oh MY Word.  

To speak is to share ourselves.  To write is to open one's heart.

Words are an act.  A revealing.  A boundary.

An outgrowth of who we are.

"Out of the heart, a mouth speaks."

 Pieces of old spiral notebook pages filled a corner of my hope chest.  Letters from my Mom and from my sisters when they were young and I was off to college and marriage and parenthood.  Letters to my sons as they grew.
Journals.  Cards.  Love notes.  
Smelling of age.

My hope chest is filled with words.  Words from an ecstatic lover.  Broken words from a funeral.  Words scribbled in crayons and glossy words on cards.  Words of hope and wonder and despair.  Secret words.

Long words and short all come together to make a story of my life.

Unwanted.  Wanted.  Torn.  Healed.  Broken.  Mended.  Fail.  Succeed.  All tied together within the heart of very simple woman.

Most of my life, I have apologized for my words.  Too direct.  Too curious.  Too bossy.  Too out there.  Too much.  Too real.

Recently, I have come to embrace my words without apology.  

They are an act of myself.  They are fueled with passion and hope and a lust for life.

And so are yours.  Value your words.  Allow them to teach you the secrets of yourself.  

We have an example of the power of words through God's Word and His Son.  Words of life.  His love in action to us.

 Don't underestimate your own words in your life and in the lives of those around you.

 Lessons From my Hope Chest...

Oh My Word!





"Every life is worthy of a novel."  Irving Polster



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