Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof. – Proverbs 18:21
A few years ago my daughter was experiencing some difficulties in her third-grade class. The school year started off fine, but in early November, her test scores began to slip. Other parents were also saying that their children were not scoring well, which seemed unusual. I spoke to the teacher to see what the problem was, and to my surprise I discovered that much of the material on the tests was not being taught in class. Needless to say, I was quite upset, and so was my daughter, who now believed she was not smart and feared repeating the third grade if she did not pass the upcoming city-wide exams.
Whether it was in the schools or on the nightly news, it seemed like everyone was talking franticly about the third-grade city-wide exams. I knew that my daughter’s self-confidence would be destroyed if she did not pass these tests, and I started to realize I had to do something to help her. I asked God for instructions on how to reverse the situation. God specifically told me to put a Scripture in her lunchbox every day—food for her body and her spirit. That is what I did, knowing that before I could begin to tutor her in school subjects, her confidence needed to be rebuilt with words of life.
The day of the big test finally came. That morning we prayed together and had our last pep talk, and then we went to school and she took her tests. About two months later the results came in: she passed both the reading and the math tests! We literally jumped up and down with joy and relief!
How wonderful that even in a situation like this, God can give specific instructions on how to solve our problems. Putting Scripture into a daughter’s lunchbox is not a solution that most people would think of, yet that is just what she needed to overcome her fear and self-doubt. Our focus verse tells us that death and life are in the power of the tongue, and I believe God was instructing me to speak life to my daughter. Indeed, from time to time we all need to be reminded of who God is and what He can do, and who we are in Christ—“We are more than conquerors through him that loved us” (Romans 8:37). When we or a loved one is facing a daunting trial, let’s choose to speak life!