When Tracy, our Weight Watchers leader, posed this question to our group, an arrow doused in truth punctured the bullseye encircling my heart.

The truth? If I spoke to my friends the way I “speak” to myself at times, I’d be friendless.

I can’t imagine telling someone I care about that they’re overweight, lacking in talent, or less of a person because a degree isn’t packed away in their attic—yet I have no qualms with speaking those things into my own life.

Tracy’s question awakened a reality within me that often dozes off when tested: Words—spoken or unspoken—do but one of two things: build up or tear down.

“With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be.” James 3:9,10

When we tear down ourselves, speak lies into our being, God’s greatest desires for us can be sabotaged, and what’s worse, we insult the One who made us in His likeness.

Sisters, this should not be.

“Friends, let’s make a promise today not only to cultivate the inner beauty God desires to see in us, but also to search for the beauty in each other. After all, we’re family, and families stick together.” – Vonda Skelton, Seeing Through The Lies