A man's self shall be filled with the fruit of his mouth; and with the consequence of his words he must be satisfied.  Death and life are in the power of the tongue.           ~Proverbs 18:20-21

I read this from Joyce Meyer: "God wants good things for your life, but you must cooperate with Him by carefully choosing what you think and speak.  By speaking negative words you are inviting negative experiences, but when you speak positive, faith-filled words, you can expect to receive the goodness of God."

I have had trouble with this in many ways.  1) my husband tells me that by not expecting or  not uttering an expectation of positive/good things to happen then I am inviting the bad to happen.  I always tell him I'm not being negative, just realistic.  But is that true?  2) my thoughts aren't always as good as they should be towards others.  I could use the old excuse that I am just being human to not feel good towards someone I feel has treated me badly OR I see treating someone else unfairly.  One has to do a lot of soul searching and praying to get past that, I do believe.  I can be pretty even tempered and forgiving to a fault --which can lead to some more difficulties that I then consider to BE MY fault. 3) My first reaction to something not so nice is to utter some hurtful things right back.  This has NEVER turned out good for me.  I'm not much good at verbal fighting.  I could be really good at 'getting even' and exacting revenge becuz I am better at the lay-low-surprise-attack...but I usually pray myself out of that...however, I STILL think it.

I had the 'opportunity' to set a good example for my son today.  It had to do with dealing with an out of control young police officer and some false accusations made against my son by another boy.  My son has witnesses on his side that can back up the fact that the other boy is making the whole thing up.  I won't go into details but my son got to see what 'grace under pressure' was all about.  We both prayed before heading over to the police station.  I also instructed my son that no matter how angry he might get, if he feels that by answering questions he is going to lose his cool, take a deep breath, let it out slow and say a quick prayer for grace at the same time.  He got to see me stay in control...yet be firm and make sure I got my point across.  I am not sure how this is all going to turn out.  But I know God is at the wheel.