Words are Like Seeds

Cover of 1898 Burpee Seed Catalog

The following is an excerpt from Your Best Life Now by Joel Osteen.

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Jose Lima started as a pitcher for the Houston Astros for several years in the late 1990's. Jose is an outgoing, energetic, likable young ballplayer who usually exudes a positive attitude. But when the Astros built their new ballpark, now known as Minute Maid Park, Jose was upset. The fence in left field was much closer than the fence at the Astrodome. In fact, Minute Maid Park has one of the shortest distances from home plate to the left-field fence of any ballpark in Major League Baseball. The hitters love it, but the short left field makes it tougher on the pitchers.

The first time Jose Lima stepped onto the new diamond, he walked out to the pitcher's mound, and when he looked into the outfield, he immediately noticed the close proximity of that left-field fence. "I'll never be able to pitch in here," he said.

The next season, despite the enthusiasm of the fans and the excitement of playing in that brand-new ballpark, Jose had the worst year of his career. He plummeted from being a twenty-game winner to being a sixteen-game loser in back-to-back seasons. Never in the history of the Astros franchise had any pitcher experienced such a pronounced negative turnaround.

What happened to Jose? The same thing that happens to many of us everyday--we get what we say. Our words become self-fulfilling prophecies. If you allow your thoughts to defeat you and then give birth to negative ideas through your words, your actions will follow suit. That's why we need to be extremely careful about what we think and especially careful about what we say. Our words have tremendous power, and whether we want to or not, we will give life to what we're saying, either good or bad.

Sadly, many people are living discouraged lives because of the their words. They say things such as:

• "Nothing good ever happens to me."
• "I'll never be successful."
• "I don't have what it takes. I can't do it."
• "I'll never get out of this mess."

Some people even call themselves names! ... They don't realize it, but their own words are paving the way for failure.

Words are like seeds. By speaking them aloud, they are planted in our subconscious minds, and they take on a life of their own; they take root, grow, and produce fruit of the same kind. If we speak positive words, our lives will move in that direction. Similarly, negative words will produce poor results. We can't speak words of defeat and failure yet expect to live in victory. We will reap exactly what we sow.

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Lunch Sunday at Ted's Montanna Grill after the workout.

We'll workout at noon and then head over to Ted's for lunch. If you can't join us for the workout, plan to meet us at the resturant at 2pm. Please let me know if you can make it for lunch so I have an idea of the size of our party.