Seven-Up

“Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” – Ephesians 4:29 Our greatest power lies in our words. I’m reminded of this whenever I think back to my teenage years on missionary trips. We traveled to areas marked by poverty, illness, and relentless heat, often in the tropics. I thought I knew what bugs were, growing up in Oklahoma, but nothing compares to the insects in Nepal, Vietnam, or Thailand. And the Amazon? There, you’ll find bugs that are both fascinating and terrifying—some even big enough to chew through tents. That’s a story for another time. On the mission field, we were taught two simple but powerful rules about our words—lessons that have stayed with me. I even celebrated my sixteenth birthday in the rice fields of