The Power Of Words

A friend sent this to me. May God use us in the same way.
Bro. Tony

There have been many things folks have said to me that have stuck to my soul over the years.
Most of them came from my parents, who always spoke life, encouragement, and hope into their kids, and made us believe anything was possible.
But there are a few things that other pastors have said to me at pivotal times that also made an irreversible difference in my life.
I want to share a few of those with you over the next couple days.
Hopefully, as you read them, you’ll realize that your words also have the power to sink deep down into someone’s soul and change his life forever.
Here’s #1:
"I’ve never seen anyone that God has His hand on like He has His hand on your son…"
Pastor Mickey White
Pastor Mickey is over 65 years old. He pastors a mission church that had about 100 people coming at the time (over 10 years ago), and he needed someone to work with the 20 youth who were coming. I was 16, had been saved 6 months, and he thought I was the man for the job.
I thought he was drunk.
So one evening he came to my house, sat down on the floor, and explained to my parents that he believed in me and wanted me to come be his youth minister.
I asked the obvious question:
"Why me? I’m 16. There will be kids in the youth group older than me. And besides, I have no clue what I’m doing. Right?"
I’ll never forget what happened next. This 60 year old man stood up, stared at me for a few seconds, then turned away from me, looked at my parents, and gave a pretty convincing speech:
"I’ve worked with students in the FCA program for many many years.
I’ve seen lots of talented Christian kids come and go. But I’ve never seen anyone that God has His hand on like He has His hand on your son." Now remember, I was blessed to grow up in a home where my confidence was built up regularly. I was always believed in and celebrated.
Always.
But there was something about a preacher with gray hair telling me, a high school junior, that I was uniquely and powerfully gifted by God in a great way.
I believed it. And that belief became an integral part of me.
God has His hand on me. I served as Pastor Mickey’s youth minister until I went to college.
I did lots of dumb things. And he told me they were dumb.
I preached for Pastor Mickey sometimes on Sunday mornings.
I said a lot of dumb things. And he told me they were dumb.
But he believed in me through it all. I probably wouldn’t be pastoring a church with almost 2000 people showing up weekly as a 27 year old punk if Pastor Mickey hadn’t believed in me as a 16 year old punk. Because he saw God’s hand on me. And he told me so.