Day 22- hammer hammer, bang bang

Jeremiah 23:29
"Is not my word like fire," declares the LORD, "and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?


Words, we use them everyday.  Trillions of words are said each day by people, you hear the same words over and over, we are not often exposed to new words daily but in my life I am.  Not new in the sense that I have never heard the word in my life but everyday I get to hear Wyatt say new words for him.  Being newly two he is developing a vocabulary that cracks me up.  When Wyatt was little, because he is such a wrecking ball, we called him "bam-bam" (like the little one off the flinstones).  Now that is one of his favorite things to say -"hammer, bam, bam, bam" he is really into tools right now and making things.  They mostly consist of blocks and his imagination but he is making things, putting them together with his two little hands. 
I am not a new parent but I am new to teaching kids words, numbers, manners, etc.  And I constantly have to remind myself of the words I am using (not that I say bad words) but I need to remember how I talk about people, what I say when I am upset, when I stub my toe, how often I say I love you and make sure he knows what that is.  It is so true that God's work can be like a hammer, it can break even the hardest of things.  But isn't that also too true for us?  Don't we use and say words that can be like a hammer to other people?  Having Wyatt and listening to his vocabulary grow rapidly reminds me to slow down and really watch how and what I say.  A few weeks ago we were on a trip with our dog and she was whinny and wouldn't sit down.  Out of habbit we said "keesa-shut it," well what Wyatt heard was Kessa-shut up!  A few days later we were in the car with Keesa again and he was saying "shut-up, shut-up, shut-up."  Jacob and I had to rack our brains trying to figure out where he may have heard this????  We also had to explain to him that we don't say things like that, they are mean and hurtful.  Once we figured out it was us we felt horrible and had to re-evaluate how something we said quickly was picked up on by our two year old and repeated over and over.  When I read this passage it reminded me of just how much power words have and that they bring many good things but also many bad.  So remember next time you are talking are you using your words like a hammer?  Are you breaking things, or people?  Or are you lifting them up and praising?