Words Have Value

Lately, I’ve been noticing something.

Maybe it’s always been this way, and I just didn’t have eyes to see it…

But we live in a world that over-talks and under-thinks.

Every feeling is “the worst.” Every frustration is “excruciating.” Every inconvenience is “traumatizing.”

Our language has become so inflated that we’ve lost the weight of words.

We say things like:

“It was a TERRIBLE day.”

“I felt AWFUL.”

“That was the WORST I’ve ever been treated.”

“I HATE when that happens.”

And we don’t even blink.

We’ve normalized exaggeration and lost touch with honest expression.

And even more troubling—we’ve begun borrowing medical and clinical terms to describe everyday human emotions:

“He’s so bipolar.”

“I’m so ADHD right now.”

“She’s definitely a narcissist.”

We toss around serious words for fleeting moments, with no understanding or care for those who carry the true weight of those realities.

So what’s going on here?

Why do we need our words to be louder, heavier, more intense?

Why isn’t ordinary language enough?

Maybe we’ve trained ourselves to speak this way because we think pain makes us more compelling.

Maybe we believe that drama gets us more attention.

Maybe the only time we feel truly seen is when we’re struggling—so we subconsciously dial up the struggle to make sure we’re heard.

But in doing so, we’ve unintentionally taught ourselves that life must be overwhelming to be worth sharing.

And that’s not just a language problem—it’s a spiritual one.

Scripture says, “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up” (Ephesians 4:29).

And “Death and life are in the power of the tongue” (Proverbs 18:21).

Our words aren’t just sounds. They’re seeds.

What we speak shapes what we see.

So when we speak in extremes, we start to live in extremes.

When we exaggerate what’s wrong, we minimize what’s right.

When we highlight where things fall short, we lose the ability to celebrate where God showed up.

We need to reclaim the sacredness of language.

That doesn’t mean we sugarcoat our pain.

It means we speak with integrity. With clarity. With intentionality.

Let’s be the kind of people who tell the truth—

Not the most dramatic version of it.

Let’s be people who name the good—

Without having to balance it with five complaints.

Let’s be people who honor words—

Because we serve a God who spoke the world into being.

So here’s what I’m asking myself—and maybe you can ask it too:

Are my words glorifying God… or just glorifying me?

Am I using language to build up others, or to draw attention to myself?

Is the way I speak leading people to hope… or just adding to the noise?

Words have value.

Let’s speak like they do.