Breaking the Power of Negative Words

     BOOK REVIEW:   Words are powerful---USE WISELY.   The spoken word has immense potential for either building up or tearing down. Too often, it's the later. Many of us are carrying around hurtful words, sometimes without even knowing it. These negative words can have great influence over our lives and the lives of those around us. But thankfully, they are not the last word.
    Mary C. Busha wants to guide you toward victory over the harmful, demeaning, or insulting words of your past. She shows you how to:

• understand the emotions and circumstances behind the words
• choose to want to forgive your offenders
• embrace the truth about who you are created to be
• recognize the effect of both negative and positive self-talk
• pray effectively to break the power of negative words
• and walk in the freedom God provides in His Word

     MY REVIEW:   I really enjoyed this book. It was written really well and not hard to get through. Mary is very realistic and readily admits her own weaknesses and experiences. She divided the book into three main sections, Words Spoken to Us, Words We Speak to Ourselves, and Words We Speak to Others. Each one is equally important. She shares stories of people whose lives were affected by the words they heard or didn't hear in their childhood, stories of those who affected their own lives by the words they spoke to themselves, and identifies the need to recognize the effect your words have and know when we need to ask forgiveness for them. 

     In the first section, I really liked the list Mary gives on why people don't forgive. Anything from not being able to forget or trust, to simply not wanting to let go of the bitterness. After this list she writes: "In summary, forgiveness is about freedom---your freedom and mine. It's about making a deliberate choice to stop holding others accountable for words that have injured us, and it's about letting the offenders go, which, in turn frees us from our prisons of words." 

     The second section, about words you say to yourself, Mary focuses on the negative words we say to ourselves, and shows us how this is wrong and how we are to find our worth in God and His Word. She lists several steps to move from negative to positive self-talk, a few of which are embracing who you are, letting go of the past, and getting together regularly with others. 

     And in the final section, what we say to others, one of my favorite illustrations is someone folding towels for you, and you go back and change them. It may not seem so to you, but to the other person it can be like throwing their act of kindness back in their face. Obviously every instance is different, but I really appreciated the reminder to consider how my words and actions appear to the other person. 

     I quite liked this book and was glad to have the opportunity to read it. I would recommend it to any and everyone. 

  I received a copy of this book from REVELL and was not required to write a positive review.