Speak Up

This picture above is of me and a very special girl who I met when on a mission trip last year and the start of my day has been turned to thinking about those who can’t speak up for themselves which is why this beautiful girl and her family are on my heart.

I’m a follower of She Reads Truth & I have both their bible (which I looooove) and their app for daily devotionals.

At the moment I’m going through the She Reads Truth “Proverbs: The Way Of Wisdom” devotional each day which goes through the verses in Proverbs that speak about wisdom. Today I came to “The Tongue” which is all about the power of our words. As many of you will know my Lent challenge last year was giving up bad language and I found it such an awakening time spiritually. I’ve always known that I don’t use my words positively enough, especially with my family members, and the 40 days of Lent showed me so much about the power of words.

It seems very poignant that I should have this reminder of my last years Lent challenge today when I just blogged about my next Lent challenge just two days ago!

Added to this, bad language has been back on my heart again this last week or so. Since moving to Canada I have been sleeping terribly and I am tired and cranky most of the time, the upshot being that I am not using my words wisely at all. I’ve been so aware of it and it feels like God is saying to me, that whilst it’s good to and positive to be starting a new challenge and journey with Him, don’t forget what He’s already taught me. Life is hard and challenging and we need to keep going back to the lessons we learn rather than just using them for a season and then putting them down. This isn’t actually true learning or showing a true heart change.

But what has really excited me about today’s reading, and spurred me on in my race, is the last verse Of today’s devotional:

Each week through Lent last year I picked a bible verse to meditate on. I wrote it down in my diary for the week and made sure that I kept going back to it. However, Proverbs 31: 8 is, I’m sad to say, not a verse that I used during this time.

The full passage this is taken from says:

Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves,
for the rights of all who are destitute.
Speak up and judge fairly;
defend the rights of the poor and needy.

I spent all of those 40 days thinking about bad language and the power that good language has to build others up and strengths our relationships, yet I didn’t connect it to this human rights race I’m trying to run. And here, so simply She Reads Truth has highlighted this verse and really shown us what we can and should be doing with our voices-speaking up for others!! This is absolutely something that I have said here on this blog before for sure, but I just didn’t link it to giving up bad language last year. And let’s face it, I should have done!

But what my Lent challenge from last year has shown us, is that when we speak up for others we don’t have to scream and shout (although it is ok to have righteous anger over injustice and some times that does mean raising our voices) because we can speak up for others with wisdom and truth, with encouragement and honey on our lips and we can tackle the problem of injustice with positive and Godly words.

So today why not try and think of one way in which you can speak up for someone else. Maybe there is an issue close to your heart that you can sign a petition for, or an article about third world issues that you can share on Facebook, or maybe you know someone who is struggling to speak up, maybe a friend or a child having issues at school, and allow your voice to help them.