Change Your Words, Change Your Life

Book excerpt: #1 New York Times bestselling author Joyce Meyer discusses the importance of words in Change Your Words, Change Your Life: "Words are a big deal. They are containers for power, and we have to decide what kind of power we want our words to carry. . . . I believe that our words can increase or decrease our level of joy. They can affect the answers to our prayers and have a positive or negative effect on our future. . . . One might say that our words are a movie screen that reveals what we have been thinking and the attitudes we have." Building on the premises of her bestselling books, Power Thoughts and Living Beyond Your Feelings, Joyce examines how we use words-the vehicles that convey our thoughts and emotions-and provides a series of guidelines for cultivating talk that is constructive, healthy, healing, and used for good results. Topics include: The Impact of Words How to Tame Your Tongue How to be Happy When to talk and when not to talk Speaking Faith and Not Fear The Corrosion of Complaints Do you really have to give your opinion? The importance of keeping your word The power of speaking God's word How to have a smart mouth In "A Dictionary of God's Word" at the end of the book, Joyce provides dozens of scripture verses, arranged by topic, and recommends that we read them aloud to strengthen our vocabulary of healing words.